Influence of anaesthetics on retinal OCT parameters and physiological dynamics in C57BL/6 mice

Mouse models are an invaluable tool in the pursuit of understanding ocular pathology. Animal studies relying on rodents performed through optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging commonly rely on anaesthesia to render the mice immobile. Here we utilised OCT to investigate the temporary effects of mouse physiology due to isoflurane and MMFK. Nine C57BL/6 mice were investigated once with MMFK and once with isoflurane for a maximum duration of up to 40 minutes. We observed distinct differences present in heart rate, blood pressure, blood vessel size within the mice retina. Moreover, significant retinal thickness differences between male and female mice were measured for isoflurane.