Term: stratified diffuse amacrine cell

Definition: Stratified diffuse amacrine cells have their dendrites lying in more than one plane but not extending the full of the inner plexiform layer. In the rat retina the arrangement of the dendirtes is visualized more readily in vertical sections than in whole mounts, and the dendritic filed is found to terminate in either the inner or the outer half of the inner plexiform layer, although the latter is more common. The cells have a mean soma size of 8.9 micrometers (range 7.5 to 10.5 micrometers; N = 15). Usually a single process leaves the cell soma and passes into the inner plexiform layer before a tight field of short branches is formed (see figure 8, plate 2, and figure 17); the mean dendritic size is 30 micrometers (range 20 to 46 micrometers; N = 15).