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Updated: Aug 14, 2026
Oxygen-Induced Retinopathy Model for Ischemic Retinal Diseases in Rodents
Published on: September 16, 2020
Mouse and Rat Oxygen-Induced Retinopathy Models to Study Vascular Features Seen in Retinopathy of Prematurity
Morgan Paige Tankersley1, Shreya Beri1, Aniket Ramshekar1
1Byers Eye Institute, Department of Ophthalmology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
Insights
Reproducible animal models are crucial for studying retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). This protocol details mouse and rat oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) models to improve research reliability and understanding of this blinding disease.
Area of Science:
- Ophthalmology
- Developmental Biology
- Animal Models
Background:
- Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a major cause of childhood blindness.
- Studying ROP in preterm infants is challenging, necessitating reliable animal models.
- Existing mouse and rat oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) models exhibit variability, hindering reproducibility.
Purpose of the Study:
- To provide a comprehensive protocol for mouse and rat OIR models.
- To enhance the reproducibility of OIR models for ROP research.
- To standardize key procedures in OIR model generation and analysis.
Main Methods:
- Detailed protocol for mouse and rat OIR model creation.
- Standardized procedures for eye enucleation and retinal dissection.
- Isolectin GS-IB4 staining, whole retina imaging, and vascular feature quantification.
Main Results:
- A comprehensive protocol for mouse and rat OIR models is presented.
- Procedures are detailed to minimize inter-litter variability and improve oxygen delivery consistency.
- Methods for retinal flat mounting, staining, imaging, and analysis are optimized.
Conclusions:
- This protocol offers critical details to improve the reproducibility of mouse and rat OIR models.
- Standardized OIR models are essential for advancing the understanding of ROP pathophysiology.
- The described methods facilitate consistent research into treatments for this blinding condition.
Abstract:
Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), a retinovascular disease, is a leading cause of childhood blindness worldwide. Given the constraints of studying molecular mechanisms in preterm infants, reproducible animal models are important to understand ROP pathophysiology. Mouse and rat oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) models are the most commonly used and recapitulate key vascular features seen in ROP. However, these models are susceptible to inherent variability that limits reproducibility, including inter-litter variability, consistency of oxygen delivery across experiments, retinal dissection technique, and immunohistochemistry. Here, we describe a comprehensive protocol for performing the most common mouse and rat OIR models, and procedures such as eye enucleation, retinal dissection and flat mounting, isolectin GS-IB4 staining, whole retina stitched fluorescence imaging from Z-stacks, and quantification of vascular features. This protocol provides important materials and procedural details to increase the reproducibility of the mouse and rat OIR models. Key features • Rat and mouse oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) models. • Eye enucleation of experimental rat and mouse pups. • Retinal flat mounting and immunostaining for rat and mouse eyes. • Image analysis of retinal flat mounts from rat and mouse eyes.
