Accumulation of (3H)glycine by cone bipolar neurons in the cat retina.

Cone bipolar neurons in the cat retina were studied in serial sections prepared as electron microscope autoradiograms following intravitreal injection of (3H)glycine. The goal was to learn whether the cone bipolar types that accumulate glycine correspond to the types thought on other grounds to be inhibitory. About half of the cone bipolars in a given patch of retina showed specific accumulation of silver grains. The specificity of accumulation was similar to that shown by glycine-accumulating amacrines. All of the cone bipolars arborizing in sublamina b accumulated glycine but none of the cone bipolars arborizing in sublamina a did so. The types of cone bipolars accumulating glycine did not match the types thought to be inhibitory. Cone bipolar types CBb1 and CBb2 both form gap junctions with the glycine-accumulating AII amacrine, thus raising the possibility that glycine might accumulate in these cone bipolars by diffusion from the AII cell or vice versa. Thus it is logically impossible to tell which of these three cells contains a high-affinity uptake mechanism for glycine and consequently which of the three might actually use glycine as a neurotransmitter.