Retinal Cup Extraction from Mouse: A Surgical Procedure to Obtain Intact Retinal Cup from Mouse Eye

Enucleate the eyes from an adult euthanized mouse, and place them into ice-cold PBS in a Petri dish, then, place the Petri dish under a dissection microscope. Using micro scissors, cut off the optic nerve, then, carefully remove the extra rectus muscles attached outside the eyeball.

Using a 30-gauge needle, punch a hole at the edge of the cornea. Then, use fine dissection micro scissors to make a circular cut along the edge of the cornea. Using sharp dissection forceps, remove the cornea, lens, and the vitreous humor from the eye cup. Make several small cuts on the scleral layer at the rim of the eye cup using fine dissection micro scissors. Use two sharp dissection forceps to hold onto the scleral tissue at each side, and pull on the scleral layer very carefully to remove it from the neural retina. Repeat this around the eye cup until all sclera is removed, and an intact retinal cup is obtained.