Relationships between ganglion cell dendritic structure and retinal topography in the cat

The morphology of ganglion cell dendritic trees varies across the cat retina. Evidence is presented that the variation in two attributes of ganglion cell dendritic structure can be accounted for by specific aspects of the topography of the adult and developing retina. The first attribute considered was the displacement of the center of the dendritic field from the cell body in the plane of the retina. The results of this study provide evidence that most ganglion cell dendritic fields are displaced away from neighboring cells, i.e., down the retinal ganglion cell density gradient. Because of the systematic dendritic displacement locally, the centers of the dendritic fields are arranged in a more precise mosaic than are their cell bodies. The second attribute considered was the elongation and orientation of the dendritic fields. From approximately embryonic day 50 to postnatal day 10 the cat retina undergoes a process of maturation (reviewed by Rapaport and Stone: Neuroscience 11:289-301, '84) that begins at the area centralis and spreads over the retina in a horizontally elongated wave. We found that the elongation and orientation of retinal ganglion cell dendritic fields is significantly correlated with the shape of the wave of maturation. The orientation of a dendritic field is not predicted by the direction of its displacement nor is it directly related to the distribution of neighboring retinal ganglion cells. These results indicate that the displacement of a ganglion cell's dendritic field from its cell body results from mechanisms different from those responsible for the orientation of the dendritic field. Factors that may be responsible for these two attributes of ganglion cell dendritic morphology are discussed.