Mueller Glia

A glia cell type of the human nervous system.

The principal radial glial cells of the retina, the only cell type spanning its entire thickness; they provide structural and metabolic support, maintain retinal homeostasis, and act as living optical fibers guiding light to the photoreceptors.

Function

Radial retinal glia that provide structural and metabolic support, maintain retinal homeostasis (glutamate/GABA uptake and recycling, potassium siphoning, AQP4 water transport), form the inner limiting membrane, and guide light through the retina to the photoreceptors.

Morphology

Elongated; radial; funnel-shaped, spanning the retina

Specification

  • Receptors: Glutamate (ionotropic & metabotropic); GABA receptors
  • Location: Retina; cell body in the inner nuclear layer, processes spanning all retinal layers
  • Projections: Span the entire retinal thickness (inner limiting membrane to photoreceptor layer)
  • Firing: Non-spiking (electrically non-excitable)
  • Markers: RLBP1/CRALBP; GLUL/glutamine synthetase; VIM/vimentin; SOX9; AQP4; SLC1A3/GLAST
  • Developmental origin: Optic-cup retinal neuroepithelium / retinal progenitor cells (last-born retinal cell type)
  • Disease: Reactive Müller gliosis in diabetic retinopathy, retinal ischemia, and retinal degenerations including age-related macular degeneration (disease involvement/response, not direct cell-type causation).
  • Cell Ontology: CL:0000636

References

  1. Franze K et al. (2007). Muller cells are living optical fibers in the vertebrate retina.. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 104 PMID 17485670
  2. Campbell LJ, Levendusky JL, Steines SA, & Hyde DR (2022). Retinal regeneration requires dynamic Notch signaling.. Neural regeneration research 17 PMID 34782554
  3. Bringmann A, Uckermann O, Pannicke T, Iandiev I, Reichenbach A, & Wiedemann P (2005). Neuronal versus glial cell swelling in the ischaemic retina.. Acta ophthalmologica Scandinavica 83 PMID 16187988

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