Dye coupling between amacrine cells in carp retina.

Amacrine cells in isolated retinas of the carp (Cyprinus carpio) were intracellularly recorded and marked with a fluorescent dye, Lucifer yellow. On occasion, dye coupling was found to occur between amacrine cells when the dye was iontophoretically injected into an amacrine cell, generating one of the transient or sustained types of photoresponse. Dye-coupled cells in the vicinity of the marked cell were very similar to the marked cell in soma shape and dendritic stratification. Dye diffusion is assumed to take place at gap junctions between dendrities of amacrine cells which belong to a population of similar type cells in morphology and possibly in function.