Backwards retina:Muller cells guide light (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, November 22, 2014, 01:01 (3655 days ago) @ David Turell

More on Muller cells guiding light:-http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/40996/title/Guiding-Light/-"The Müller cells' maximal light concentration occurred in the green-yellow part of the light spectrum at a wavelength of 560 nm, which happens to be the wavelength one cone cell type is most sensitive to. “The next question was, if they're guiding mainly green light, where are they directing it?” asks Labin.-"Zooming in on guinea pig retinas under a confocal microscope, the researchers found that each Müller cell was coupled to an individual cone photoreceptor, and that nearly 90 percent of all cone cells were linked to Müller cells. The optical-fiber effect could increase the number of photons reaching a single cone cell nearly 11-fold at its peak concentrating power, but had only a minimal effect on the light reaching rod cells.-“How optimal light guidance is matched to the absorption spectra of the cone photoreceptors is very surprising,” says Franze, who was not involved with this study. Diameter and refractive index are the “two factors [that] determine the color that optical fibers can guide efficiently,” says Labin. “Our immediate next step is to understand the exact mechanism that creates this special phenomenon.”-"Labin suggests his group's data could eventually help design better biomimetic sensors and cameras, or address the clinical implications of Müller cells' dysfunction. For now, he says, these results clear the picture on a long-standing biological question. “We finally understand how our eyes compensate for the strange, upside-down architecture of the retina.'"