Mouse Models of Retinal Degeneration

Male and female B6 wild-type (WT) mice, B6.Cg-Gt(ROSA)26Sortm14(CAG-tdTomato)Hze/J (ROSA-td-Tomato) mice, and B6.CXB1-Pde6βrd10/J (rd10) mice were used. ROSA-td-Tomato and rd10 mice were purchased from the Jackson Laboratory. The mice were bred and reared under cyclic light (12 hours light: 12 hours dark). To perform the experiments, mice were anesthetized via intraperitoneal injection of 15 mg/kg ketamine and 7 mg/kg xylazine. The chemical-induced retinal degeneration model was created via intraperitoneal administration of a single dose of N-methyl-N-nitrosourea (MNU) to mice. After anesthesia, the mice were weighed, and injected with MNU (30−75 mg/kg). All mice were treated in accordance with the standards of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology for the use of animals in ophthalmic and vision research. All animal experiments were reviewed and approved by the Kyushu University Ethics Committee for Animal Experimentation and were conducted in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations (A20-360, A21-225).