Immunohistochemical phenotyping of mouse amacrine cell subtypes

The retina shares its embryological origin with the central nervous system (CNS), so the neural circuitry of the retina has long been considered to be a relatively simple model of the neural networks in the brain, sharing similar morphologies, neurotransmitters, and receptors. Amacrine cells are, by far, the largest group of inhibitory neurons in the retina that also have the most diverse range of phenotypes of any retinal neuron. Here, I describe an approach, using immunolabeling of cryosections, to identify different subclasses of amacrine cell in the mouse retina.