J Physiol Society Membership
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
 QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     


J Physiol Vol 237, Issue 2 pp 341-370
Copyright © 1974 by The Physiological Society
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Alpern, M.
Right arrow Articles by Pugh, E. N.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Alpern, M.
Right arrow Articles by Pugh, E. N., Jr

The density and photosensitivity of human rhodopsin in the living retina

M. Alpern and E. N. Pugh, Jr

1. The visual pigment in a 5° circular patch of the living human retina 18° temporal from the fovea was studied with the Rushton retinal densitometer. The measuring light (570 nm) was selected to obviate artifacts from colour photoproducts.

2. The action spectrum of a 10% bleach agrees well with the action spectrum at absolute threshold for the same patch of retina. The quantized C.I.E. scotopic spectral sensitivity curve is a good description of both spectra. Therefore, the visual pigment studied must be human rhodopsin.

3. Its density has been estimated in five different ways. The results are in reasonable agreement. The optical density of human rhodopsin in vivo is about 0·35 (common logarithmic units) at its {gamma}max.

4. The photosensitivity of human rhodopsin in vivo was determined by studying its rate of bleaching in response to steps of monochromatic light exposed to the dark adapted eye, by measuring the amount bleached in the steady state by monochromatic lights as well as the amount bleached by 10 sec flashes of white light.

5. The results obtained by the different methods are in good agreement with each other and with previous estimates made by others using white light.

6. The photosensitivity of human rhodopsin in vivo [{varepsilon}{gamma}max = 62,000 to 120,000 l./cm mole] is much higher than expected from in vitro measurements.




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
J. Physiol.Home page
A. M. Cameron, O. A. R. Mahroo, and T. D. Lamb
Dark adaptation of human rod bipolar cells measured from the b-wave of the scotopic electroretinogram
J. Physiol., September 1, 2006; 575(2): 507 - 526.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]




HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 1974 The Physiological Society.