The distribution of c-myb immunoreactivities in the adult mouse retina.

The myb gene family is composed of three different myb-related genes, A-, B- and c-myb. Among these, the presence of c-myb mRNA in developing and adult retina was previously reported. However, further study on the expression of c-myb in the retina is warranted because the previous study was only performed on developing retinal tissues by in situ hybridization technique. Therefore, in this study, we tried to perform immunohistochemical study, with a focus on the c-myb protein expression in adult retina. Although the cell types were unconfirmed, c-myb protein was likely to have been found in the ganglion, amacrine, horizontal and photoreceptor cells, judging from their locations and morphologies. The experimental data suggested that c-myb immunoreactivities were expressed by the cells in the neural retina, even in the adult stage, especially within some types of cells in specified retinal layers. This suggests that c-myb might play a role in the physiology of the retinal cells, not only in differentiation during retinal development.