Effect of L, T and N-Type Calcium Channels on Retinal Ganglion Cells

Abstract

Eye is a complex electro-optical image processing system which provides vision, a complex information processing which relies on the neural processing in the retina through electrical synapses enacted through the gap junctions. Light incident on the retina which is sensible to light, generates a series of electrical and chemical synapses producing the nerve impulses. The light entering the pupil gets converged by the lens and focused as an inverted image to the photoreceptors, the rods and cones. Neural signals from the rods and cones are processed in the Retinal Ganglion Cells(RGCs) with their axons forming the optic nerve. These nervous messages are mostly related with an electrical change known as the action potential. An all active Fohlmeister–Coleman–Miller(FCM) model adapted with seven non-linear ion channels is designed for the RGC with a gap junction conductance(G) between the RGCs. No models have analysed the RGCs with active membrane properties including the Calcium channels and gap junction conductances in between the RGCs. The simulations were performed for the adapted FCM model and their ionic currents are measured. The action potential of the designed RGCs and the ionic currents are measured by the model simulation to analyse the effect of different types of Calcium currents and gap junction conductances in RGC apoptosis.