Certain aspects of acetylcholine metabolism in teleost retina

Acetylcholine (ACh) synthesis and release from isolated superfused retina of the teleost Eugerres plumieri has been studied under different physiological conditions. The retinas were superfused with Krebs-Ringer solutions containing [14C]choline and the extracellular space of 32% was determined by [3H]inulin. The retina accumulates choline (Ch) from the superfusion medium and this process is mediated by a high affinity transport system with a Km of 1.82 microM. The incorporated Ch is mainly utilized for the synthesis of ACh. The ACh content of the light-adapted retina is not significantly different from that of a dark-adapted one. However, the release of [14C]ACh from the light-adapted retina was 52% higher as compared to the release from the dark-adapted retina. Flicker stimulation induced a larger increase in ACh release, than from either light or dark adapted retina, proportional to flicker frequency. The results suggest that changes in ACh utilization were related to the function of cellular units responsible for light changes transduction rather than light detection.