The team of researchers Jiang Ruotian of the National and Local Joint Engineering Center for Anesthesia and Translational Medicine and the team of Professor Liu Longqian of Ophthalmology published a research paper in Science Advances to reveal potassium ion...

Recently, the team of researchers Jiang Ruotian of the National and Local Joint Engineering Center for Anesthesia and Translational Medicine and the team of Professor Liu Longqian of the Department of Ophthalmology/Optometry published online in Science Advances (IF: 14.

The research paper was recommended

Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) not only receive signals from higher-level neurons, but also perform linear or nonlinear calculations

Between photoreceptor cells and bipolar cells, as well as between bipolar cells and the synapses of RGCs, neuron-activity-mediated extracellular acidification reduces the pH of the synaptic gap from 7.

Two-pore-domain potassium channel (K2P) is a class of tetraethylammonium (TEA) non-sensitive background potassium ion channel family, different subclasses of K2P for different stimuli sensitivity, a variety of endogenous and exogenous stimuli can regulate K2P channel activation, such as: mechanical stimulation, polyunsaturated fatty acid stimulation, acidity pH stimulation and so on

The study found that TASK-3 was expressed in at least 96% of RGCs, and at least 91% of the autophotosensitive RGCs (IPRGC) also expressed TASK-3

The strong pH buffer HEPES buffers neuronal activity-mediated transient acidification without affecting the pH

In visual behavioral experiments, the team found that inhibiting or knocking out TASK-3 significantly reduced pupillary light reflex sensitivity, visual acuity, and contrast sensitivity

Both human and mouse vision declines

This study found: (1) Significant expression of the two-pore potassium ion channel TASK-3 in RGC; (2) Regulation of excitability and light sensitivity of RGC by perceiving neuronal activity-dependent extracellular acidification; (3) Thereby regulating non-imaging and imaging functions such as pupil light reflection, visual sharpness, and contrast sensitivity; (4) Decreased expression and function of TASK-3 in RGC in elderly mice; Specific overexpression of TASK-3 in RGC reverses the decline in visual function due to aging, restoring vision in older mice to the level of

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