Anesthesia and Animals

Six- to 8-week-old female BALB/c mice and C57BL/6N mice were purchased from Charles River Laboratories (Sulzfeld, Germany). An intraperitoneal injection of ketamine (8 mg/kg; Godecke, Berlin, Germany) and xylazine (0.1 mL/kg; Bayer, Leverkusen, Germany) was administrated to each animal for deep anesthesia before surgery. All animal protocols are in accordance with the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology's Statement on the Use of Animals in Ophthalmic and Vision Research and were authorized by the local animal care and use committee.