Male brown norway rats

Male Brown-Norway rats (7–8 weeks old; Charles River Laboratories, Sulzfeld, Germany) were used for this study. The study was approved by the animal care committee of North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) and the experiments were carried out in accordance with the ARVO statement for the use of animals in ophthalmic and vision research. Rats were housed under environmentally controlled conditions (12-h light-dark cycle) with free access to chow and water.

Male Brown-Norway rats (7–8 weeks old; Charles River Laboratories, Sulzfeld, Germany) were used for the analyses. The study was approved by the animal care committee of North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany), all experiments were carried out in accordance with the ARVO statement for the use of animals in ophthalmic and vision research. Rats were housed under environmentally controlled conditions (12-h light-dark cycle) with free access to chow and water.

Male Wistar rats, used for retinal explants, were purchased from Janvier Labs (Le Genest Saint-Isle, France). Male Brown Norway rats, used in the microbead occlusion model, were obtained from Charles River Laboratories (Charles River Laboratories, Wilmington, MA, USA). Animals were housed in a 12:12 light–dark cycle with ad libitum access to food and water. All experiments were performed in accordance with the ARVO (Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology) statement for the Use of Animals in Ophthalmic and Vision Research.

Male Brown-Norway rats were purchased from Charles River (176–200 g; Sulzfeld, Germany). The study was approved by the animal care committee of North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) and the experiments were carried out in accordance with the ARVO statement for the use of animals in ophthalmic and vision research. Rats were housed under environmentally controlled conditions (12 h light-dark cycle) with free access to chow and water.

Male and female C57BL/6 mice (16–20 g) were originally obtained from Harlan UK Limited (Bicester, UK). Male CD4^−/− mice were obtained via the Swiss Immunological Mouse Repository. TRPV1^−/− mice were purchased from Jackson Labs.TRPA1^−/− mice were obtained from a generous donation from Prof. David Julius (University of California) via Prof Peter Zygmunt (Lund University). All of the genetically modified (GM) lines were on a C57BL/6 background and colonies of sufficient size, including the wild type (WT) controls, were established in house. Age matched male mice were used for the studies.Male Brown Norway rats (175-225gm) were purchased from Charles River, Germany, and housed for at least 5 days before beginning treatments with food and water supplied ad libitum. All protocols were approved by a local ethical review process (Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Body) and strictly adhered to the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 UK Home Office guidelines. The in vivo work was performed under a project licence (PPL70/7212) by staff holding personal licences that were trained in the relevant techniques and according to the ARRIVE guidelines [19 ].

Male Brown Norway rats (8–10 weeks old; Charles River, Wilmington, MA, USA), Vldlr^−/− mice (postnatal day [P]13–P28), Pparα^−/− mice (8–10 weeks old), and wild-type (WT) C57BL/6J mice (8–10 weeks old; Jackson Laboratories, Bar Harbor, ME, USA) were used. Breeding pairs of Vldlr^−/− mice and Pparα^−/− mice are in the background of C57BL/6J, purchased from Jackson Laboratories. All experiments were performed following the guidelines of the ARVO Statement for the Use of Animals in Ophthalmic and Vision Research and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. In all procedures, animals were anesthetized with intramuscular injection of 50 mg/kg ketamine hydrochloride mixed with 5 mg/kg xylazine (Vedco, St. Joseph, MO, USA), and pupils were dilated with topical administration of 1% cyclopentolate (Wilson, Mustang, OK, USA).