RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Differential stimulation of the retina with glutamate toward a neurotransmitter-based retinal prosthesis
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 060681
DO 10.1101/060681
A1 Corey M. Rountree
A1 Samsoon Inayat
A1 John B. Troy
A1 Laxman Saggere
YR 2016
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/06/24/060681.abstract
AB Subretinal stimulation of the retina with neurotransmitters, the normal means of conveying visual information, is a potentially better alternative to electrical stimulation widely used in current retinal prostheses for treating blindness from photoreceptor degenerative diseases. Yet, no retinal stimulation study exploiting the inner retinal pathways exists. Here, we demonstrate the feasibility of differentially stimulating retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) through the inner nuclear layer of the retina with glutamate, a primary neurotransmitter chemical, in a biomimetic way. We show that controlled pulsatile delivery of glutamate into the subsurface of explanted wild-type rat retinas elicits highly localized simultaneous inhibitory and excitatory spike rate responses in OFF and ON RGCs. We also present the spatiotemporal characteristics of RGC responses to subretinally injected glutamate and the therapeutic stimulation parameters. Our findings could pave the way for future development of a neurotransmitter-based subretinal prosthesis offering more naturalistic vision and better visual acuity than electrical prostheses.