Regensburg 2010 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 33: Posters: Neurobiophysics
BP 33.2: Poster
Donnerstag, 25. März 2010, 17:15–20:00, Poster B1
Light propagation through the vertebrate retina — •Silke Agte1,2, Sabrina Matthias1,2, Stephan Junek3, Elke Ulbricht1, Ines Erdmann1, Detlev Schild3, Josef Käs2, and Andreas Reichenbach1 — 1Paul-Flechsig-Institute for Brain Research, Department of Neurophysiology, Jahnallee 59, 04109 Leipzig, Germany — 2Institute of Physics, Department of Soft Matter Physics, Linnèstrasse 5, 04103 Leipzig, Germany — 3Center of Physiology and Pathophysiology, Department of Neurophysiology and Cellular Biophysics, Humboldtallee 23 37073 Göttingen, Germany
The retina of the vertebrates has an inverted design. Therefore the light has to pass several tissue layers before hitting the signal transducing photoreceptor cells. These layers include structures with sizes on the order of the wavelength of visible light which would result in a scattering and reflection of the photons. We suppose that the Müller cell of the retina is responsible for the light transport where this glial cell channels the light from the vitreous body to the nuclei of the photoreceptor cells. The Müller cell occupies several features which point to the lightguidance ability: e.g. its strategic position in the path of light through the tissue, its funnel shape, its rareness of highly scattering objects and its refractive index. This project investigates the optical properties of the retinal glial cell in its normal tissue by illuminating a single Müller cell endfoot. While the retina is moving with respect to the light source there are changes of the beam structure and thus the Müller cell channels the light to the photoreceptor cells similar to an optic fiber.