Summary
Hemicholinium-3 (HC-3), a drug which prevents synthesis of acetylcholine in neurons, when injected intraperitoneally in doses as low as 2×5 mg/kg produces marked ultrastructural changes and damage in rod but not in cone photoreceptors. In rods it causes a reduction in cytoplasmic back-ground density, swelling of the endoplasmic reticulum, ballooning of the outer membrane of the nucleus, leaching of the nucleoplasm and clumping of the nuclear chromatin. In dark-adapted rods HC-3 produces some loss of cytoplasmic synaptic vesicles but no reduction in numbers of those vesicles which lie adjacent to the synaptic ribbons. In light-adapted rods the drug does not cause such an apparent reduction of synaptic vesicles but does induce a considerable reduction in numbers of vesicles associated with the ribbons. These structural changes are discussed in the light of what is known about the pharmacology of HC-3 and neurotransmitter release from vertebrate photoreceptors.
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Osborne, M.P., Monaghan, P. Differential sensitivity of rods and cones in Xenopus retina to hemicholinium-3. Cell Tissue Res. 175, 59–72 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00220823
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00220823