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Updated: Jun 12, 2026

Investigating Retinal Circuits and Molecular Localization by Pre-Embedding Immunoelectron Microscopy
Published on: July 12, 2024
PKC{alpha} is essential for the proper activation and termination of rod bipolar cell response
Klaus Ruether1, Andreas Feigenspan, Judith Pirngruber
1Charité- Eye-Hospital, Campus Virchow-Klinikum, Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany. ruether@freenet.de
Purpose:
Protein kinase (PKC)-α is abundant in retinal bipolar cells. This study was performed to explore its role in visual processing.
Methods:
PKCα-knockout (Prkca(-/-)) mice and control animals were examined by using electroretinography (ERG), light microscopy, and immunocytochemistry.
Results:
The Prkca(-/-) mice showed no signs of retinal degeneration up to 12 months of age, but ERG measurements indicated a decelerated increase in the ascending limb of the scotopic (rod-sensitive) b-wave as well as a delayed return to baseline. These results suggest that PKCα is an important modulator that affects bipolar cell signal transduction and termination. Confocal microscopy of retinal sections showed that PKCα co-localized with calbindin, which indicates a PKCα localization in close proximity to the horizontal cell terminals. In addition, the implicit time of the ERG c-wave originating from the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and the recovery of photoreceptors from bleaching conditions were substantially faster in the knockout mice than in the wild-type control animals.
Conclusions:
These results suggest that PKCα is a modulator of rod-bipolar cell function by accelerating glutamate-driven signal transduction and termination. This modulation is of importance in the switch between scotopic and photopic vision. Furthermore, PKCα seems to play a role in RPE function.
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