Neurotrophins and development of the rod pathway: An elementary deduction

The rodent retina is a particularly attractive model for the study of neuro nal developmental processes since considerable neurogenesis, cellular migra tion, phenotypic differentiation of retinal cell types and synaptogenesis o ccurs postnatally. In addition, the retina is readily accessible to surgica l intervention, pharmacological manipulation, and local, suppression of gen e expression-tools that can be utilized to study mechanisms underlying the development of retinal neurons and their interconnections that form distinc t functional circuits. Here, I review our studies describing the ontogeny o f a specific retinal interneuron, the AII amacrine cell, an integral elemen t in the rod (scotopic) pathway. Specifically, we used a number of approach es to examine the potential role of neurotrophic factors on the morphologic al and neurochemical differentiation of the AII. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.