After fixing the enucleated eyeball of the euthanized mouse, transfer it to a glass slide and place it under a dissecting microscope. Using forceps, clamp the margin of the cornea to prevent eyeball movement. With the dissecting scissors, cut around the cornea at a depth of approximately one millimeter through the cornea scleral limbus, and then remove the lens and vitreous body.
Holding the optic disc at the center, cut the retina radially along the four quadrants, reaching approximately 2/3 of the retina's radius. Clamp one of the scleral edges using toothed forceps. Hold the sclera edge with untoothed forceps and move from the toothed forceps toward the sclera base.
Carefully peel the retina. Wet the retina with 200 microliters of PBS using a pipette. Remove excess PBS using absorbent paper, and flatten the retina with a small bristle brush if needed.
Slowly add cold methanol drop-by-drop onto the retina's inner surface until it covers completely. Once the retina turns white and develops increased tenacity, gently flatten the retina and remove impurities, such as residual pigment membranes and the vitreous body, with a small bristle brush. After inverting the retina, treat it with methanol as previously demonstrated, and transfer it into a well of 24 well plate, Soak it in methanol and store it at 20 degrees Celsius for one to two hours for immediate immunostaining.
Then rinse the retina with PBS after removing methanol from the plate. The retinol ganglion cells of the retinas before and after methanol treatment were visualized using confocal microscopy, which indicated that the 12 months of methanol preservation did not affect the RGC immunostaining.
