Cba j

Mice were at least 6-week old at the time of experiments. Mice were acquired from Jackson Laboratories (VGAT-Cre, SOM-Cre, PV-Cre, ROSA-LSL-tdTomato, C57BL/6J, CBA/J, and BALB/cJ) or Charles River Laboratories (C57BL/6J, CBA/J, and BALB/cJ). Both female and male animals were used and housed in a reverse light cycle (12h-12h). All experiments were performed during their dark cycle. All procedures were in accordance with the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Osaka University as well as guidelines of the National Institute of Health.

Animal experiments were approved in advance by, and conducted under licence of, the ethics committee of the government authority of the federal state of Northrhine Westphalia (NRW) (Landesamt für Naturschutz, Umweltschutz und Verbraucherschutz, NRW), and were conducted in accordance with the European Communities Council Directive of September 22nd, 2010 (2010/63/EEC). All methods were carried out in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations. Sample size, outcome measures, statistical measures and experimental procedures are consistent with the ARRIVE guidelines 2.0. The design of the study did not necessitate ‘blinding’ or randomisation. Male CBA/J (Charles River, Sulzfeld, Germany) and CBA/CaOlaHsd mice (Envigo Laboratories, Venray, Netherlands) were housed in a temperature- and humidity-controlled containers (Scantainer, Scanbur Technology A/S, Karlslunde, Denmark) with a constant 12-h light–dark cycle and ad libitum food and water access. The CBA/J (PDE6brd1/PDE6brd1) mouse possesses a hereditary mutation of the PDE6B gene (retinal degeneration1, rd1)^{42 (link),43 (link)} that results in retinal destruction by 4 weeks of age^{7 (link)}. The CBA/CaOlaHsd mouse strain has no reported deficits in its sensory modalities^{44 (link)–46 (link)} and exhibits superior spatial memory compared to the CBA/J strain^{7 (link),8} .

Inbred mouse strains A/J (000646), AKR/J (000648), C3H/HeJ (000659), DBA/1J (000670), C57BL/6J (000664), NZW/LacJ (001058), FVB/NJ (001800), NOD/ShiLtJ (001976), CAST/EiJ (000928), BALB/cJ (000651), 129S1/SvlmJ (002448), and BTBR (002282) were purchased from Jackson. CBA/J, SJL/J and C57BL/6NJ strains were bought from Charles River. 129S6 and C57BL/6JBomTac inbred mouse strains were purchased from Taconic. Itgae^−/− mice (006144) were purchased from Jackson, bred and maintained on C57BL/6J (000664) background, and littermate wild type mice used as control for experiments. Ifnar^−/− mice were described previously (32 (link)) and maintained on C57BL/6 background. All animals were housed in single ventilated cages. During survival experiments, the health status of the mice was checked twice daily. Animal experiments were authorized by the Landesamt für Natur, Umwelt und Verbraucherschutz (LANUV) Nordrhein-Westfalen and in accordance with the German law for animal protection and/or according to institutional guidelines at the Ontario Cancer Institute of the University Health Network. Animals exhibiting severe symptoms of sickness or showing substantial weight loss during infection were put to death and were considered dead for statistical analysis.