Regional specialization of retinal glial cell membrane

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221 Scopus citations

Abstract

Neural activity generates increases in extracellular K+ concentration, [K+]0, which must be regulated in order to maintain normal brain function1. Glial cells are thought to play an important part in this regulation through the process of K+ spatial buffering2-4: K+-mediated current flow through glial cells redistributes extracellular K+ following localized [K +]0 increases. As is the case in other glia, the retinal Müller cell is permeable almost exclusively to K+ (ref. 5). Recent experiments6-8 have suggested that this K+ conductance may not be distributed uniformly over the cell surface. In the present study, two novel techniques have been used to assess the Müller cell K+ conductance distribution. The results demonstrate that 94% of all membrane conductance lies in the endfoot process of the cell. This strikingly asymmetric distribution has important consequences for theories concerning K+ buffering and should help to explain the generation of the electroretinogram.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)155-157
Number of pages3
JournalNature
Volume309
Issue number5964
DOIs
StatePublished - 1984

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