Horizontal cells of the rabbit retina: some quantitative properties revealed by selective staining

Horizontal cells of the rabbit retina were selectively stained by demonstration of beta-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase activity. Thereafter, the size of the cell bodies, the distance between neighbouring cells, and the number of cells per mm2 were measured. In the area centralis, the horizontal cell bodies occupy only 4.2% of the total retinal area; in the far periphery, however, 12.8% of the retinal area consist of horizontal cell bodies. Furthermore, the horizontal cells of the retinal periphery have much larger cell bodies as compared with those of the retinal center. The far periphery, for these reasons, is concluded to be the optimal region for intracellular microelectrode recordings from rabbit retinal horizontal cells.