Rabbit Model for Ophthalmic Procedures

All pre and post procedures were carried out as previously described^{52 (link)}. Briefly, eight New Zealand White rabbits were used for this study. All CE-CI procedures were performed by JSM. The use of rabbits, their care and treatment adhered to the regulation of the ARVO statement for the Use of Animals in Ophthalmic and Vision Research, and all experimental procedures were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of SingHealth, Singapore (Ref:2017/SHS/1292). All surgical procedures and follow-up evaluations were performed under general anesthesia achieved by intramuscular injections of 5 mg/kg xylazine hydrochloride (Troy Laboratories, New South Wales, Australia) and 50 mg/kg ketamine hydrochloride (Parnell Laboratories, New South Wales, Australia), along with topical application of lignocaine hydrochloride 1% (Pfizer Laboratories, New York, USA).