High resistance of the rat retina rods to hypoxia

The amplitude of photoreceptor potential was shown to be constant in hypoxia. Under this condition, the energy support of the photoreceptor potential seems to be realized through an anaerobic process rather than the oxidative phosphorylation. The effect of hypoxia was shown to manifest itself in a decrease of the sagged peak part of the photoreceptor potential occurring in response to bright flashes. Such changes of wave form are typical for the case when the rod intracellular potential decreases. The decrease of response amplitude to bright flashes shortens the light scale of the amplitude/light intensity curve.