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

The murine eye is covered by three layers: the outermost fibrous sclera, the middle choroid coat, and the innermost retina. The cup-shaped cavity between the retina and eye lens contains vitreous humor — a gelatinous medium that helps transmit light to the retina.  In turn, the retina passes the resulting visual information via the optic nerve to the brain.

To extract the retinal cup, take a euthanized mouse and enucleate its eye. Submerge the eye in a Petri dish containing an appropriate ice-cold buffer to prevent tissue degradation. Place the Petri dish under a dissection microscope.

Snip off the remnants of the optic nerve from the base of the eyeball. Make a small incision at the junction of the retina and the cornea  — a transparent covering around the eye lens. Using this opening, make a complete circular cut along the retina-cornea junction to detach the lens and the vitreous humor gel from the eye.

Remove the lens and vitreous humor to obtain a semi-circular eye cup containing the retina lined by choroid and sclera. Create multiple superficial cuts throughout the scleral portion of the eye cup. Use these cuts to separate the outer eye layers for obtaining an intact retinal cup for downstream applications.