To further characterize the H1 and H2 horizontal
cell populations in macaque monkey retinae, cells were
injected with the tracer Neurobiotin following intracellular
recordings. Tracer coupling between cells of the same type
revealed all H1 or H2 cells in small patches around the
injected cell. The mosaics of their cell bodies and the
tiling of the retina with their dendrites were analyzed.
Morphological differences between the H1 and H2 cells observable
in Neurobiotin-labeled patches made it possible to recognize
H1 and H2 cells in retinae immunolabeled for the calcium-binding
proteins parvalbumin and calbindin, and thus to study their
relative spatial densities across the retina. These data,
together with the intracellularly stained patches, show
that H1 cells outnumber H2 cells at all eccentricities.
There is, however, a change in the relative proportions
of H1 and H2 cells with eccentricity: close to the fovea
the ratio of H1 to H2 cells is ∼4 to 1, in midperipheral
retina ∼3 to 1, and in peripheral retina ∼2 to
1. In both the Neurobiotin-stained and the immunostained
retinae, about 3–5% of the H2 cells were obviously
misplaced into the ganglion cell layer. Several features
of the morphology of the misplaced H2 cells suggest that
they represent the so-called “biplexiform ganglion
cells” previously described in Golgi studies of primate
retina.