[The coexistence of multi-neuroactive substances in neurons of the developing cat and chicken retinas]

An improved post-embedding immunocytochemical technique was used to examine the coexistence of multi-neuroactive substances in neurons of young cat and newly hatched chicken retinas. We found that two classical neurotransmitters-glycine (Gly) and r-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and one neuropeptide, neurotensin (NT) were located in the amacrine cells of cat and chicken retinas. Among them, some cells contain Gly and GABA (Gly/GABA AC), some cells contain Gly and NT (Gly/NT AC) or GABA and NT (GABA/NT AC), and the other cells, a few of them contain Gly, GABA and NT (Gly/GABA/NT AC). In addition, two classical neurotransmitters Gly and GABA were also located or coexisted in the horizontal cells of cat retina. These results indicated that the coexistence of two neurotransmitters or one neurotransmitter and one neuropeptide or two neurotransmitters and one neuropeptide was presented in neurons of developing can and chicken retinas.