A practical approach to optic nerve crush in the mouse

Our goal is to provide an instructional resource to help others wishing to use the optic nerve crush (ONC) as an experimental procedure. The process is described beginning with the anesthesia, followed by positioning of the mouse, the surgery itself, and post-surgical care. We analyzed the effect of ONC on retinal blood flow, using optical coherence tomography doppler. This procedure produces a consistent loss of cells in the ganglion cell layer, using whole mounts of retina stained with TO-PRO-3. An instructional video is presented that demonstrates a simple surgical approach to effectively crush the optic nerve of the mouse.