Occurrence of serotonin-accumulating neurones in cultures of retina from the human foetus.

Cultures were produced from retinas taken from human foetuses. Specific cells in culture have the capacity to take up exogenous serotonin, which was then visualized by immunofluorescence using an antisera to serotonin. The known serotonergic uptake blocker, chlorimipramine, inhibited the uptake of the amine while benztropine, a dopamine-uptake blocker, is ineffectual. These findings show that serotonin-accumulating cells are formed prenatally in man and demonstrate the usefulness of this preparation for future studies.