Dopamine is a key neurotransmitter in the retina that is known to play a role in retinal light adaptation, the size of the receptive field and chromatic processing. The abnormal release of dopamine in the retina has been implicated in triggering retinal degeneration. The dopamine trigger hypothesis has not been tested due to insufficient analytical methods for intact cellular or whole retinal studies. Dopamine is an electroactive neurotransmitter; thus, single cell amperometry may be the appropriate tool to complete these studies. However, dopaminergic amacrine cells constitute a minute percentage of retinal cells and, hence, are a challenge to culture for electrochemical studies. Several experiments were done to improve the protocol for culturing and isolating these cells. Firstly, the concentration and time for the dissociation of retinal cells with papain was adjusted. Secondly, retinal cells were plated on cover slips coated with an antibody to the extracellular loop of the dopamine transporter instead of poly-L-lysine. Both of these protocol changes increased the yield of intact dopaminergic amacrine cells. Carbon-fiber microelectrode amperometry was used to measure dopamine release from cells following stimulation with K+-enriched buffer. Further work is necessary to precisely analyze the characteristics of dopamine release from amacrine cells.

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