Retinal neuron shapes

I think we talked a bit about retinal neurons when we met? Anyway, they are the neurons in the retina in the eye.

There are only a few types of neurons in the retina. Each type has a distinct shape and function. Sensory cells - the rods and cones - fire electrical signals when they are hit by a sufficient quantity of light. The other neurons in the retina - bipolar cells, horizontal cells, amacrine cells, and ganglion cells - are involved in processing the signals from the rods and cones and transmitting them through the optic nerve to the brain.

http://www.ganfyd.org/index.php?title=Retina

http://webvision.med.utah.edu/Wong.html

Stem cells could be used to replaced damaged retinal neurons. There is no cell proliferation in the adult retina, so no natural regeneration occurs there.

This paper is about transplanting photoreceptor precursor cells into the eye.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v444/n7116/abs/nature05161.html

(Thanks Mike!)

This paper is about making stem cells produce retinal cells for transplantation into damaged retinas.

http://www.pnas.org/content/103/34/12769.abstract




Their figures are worth a look. Once again, badger me for pdfs :)

Neurotransmitters

Oxytocin


Acetylcholine

Dopamine


Serotonin

They are a bit simplified, but the info seems to check out ok. Hopefully good enough to spark some ideas about symbols. The knives and forks 'food' symbol for astroglial cells is still awesome, by the way. People don't appreciate glia as they should.

Research and drawings!!

Well first of all hello and apologies for getting these up slow, I have been putting together images for an aluminium book and sorting out my new (second hand) computer which was not behaving itself, haven't read through everything you have given me recently yet, butI have put up a lot of the stuff I have have been looking at and drawing from plus drawings onto a photobucket account:

http://s786.photobucket.com/albums/yy148/DesignBot/

Would be cool to know what you think on both research and drawings. Plus if you know of any other cool clear images and or names of stemcells and neurons I could google for more indpiration :)

Put them up here too :)

Everything you ever wanted to know about stem cells (but were too afraid to ask)

Stem cells - Nature answers some FAQs

Pulling back from our focus on neural stem cells, this Nature feature talks about some basic stem cell FAQs. A useful primer before going onto the cool creating-transplanting-miraculously curing diseases-inadvertently causing cancers-Frankensteinian-bleeding edge stem cell research papers, which form a huge, confusing morass and are likely to suck in the unwary as a 7-year old sucks in spaghetti. (Leaving red stains on the ceiling and walls.)

There are sections on Physiology, Laboratory use, Medicine and Ethics, with many good sub-articles.

Once again, if Nature has made this closed-access I can get it to you in other ways, DesignBot.