Lifelong Changes in the Choroidal Thickness, Refractive Status, and Ocular Dimensions in C57BL/6J Mouse.

Purpose: To investigate the changes in choroidal thickness (ChT), refractive status, and ocular dimensions in the mouse eye in vivo using updated techniques and instrumentation.

Methods: High-resolution swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT), eccentric infrared photoretinoscopy, and custom real-time optical coherence tomography were used to analyze choroidal changes, refractive changes and ocular growth in C57BL/6J mice from postnatal day (P) 21 to month 22.

Results: The ChT gradually increased with age, with the thickest region in the para-optic nerve head and thinning outward, and the temporal ChT was globally thicker than the nasal ChT. Retinal thickness remained stable until 4 months and subsequently decreased. The average spherical equivalent refraction error was -4.81 ± 2.71 diopters (D) at P21, which developed into emmetropia by P32, reached a hyperopic peak (+5.75 ± 1.38 D) at P82 and returned to +0.66 ± 1.86 D at 22 months. Central corneal thickness, anterior chamber depth, lens thickness, and axial length (AL) increased continuously before 4 months, but subsequently exhibited subtle changes. Vitreous chamber depth decreased with lens growth. ChT was correlated significantly with the ocular parameters (except for retinal thickness) before the age of 4 months, but these correlations diminished after 4 months. Furthermore, for mice younger than 4 months, the difference in the ChT, especially temporal ChT, between the two eyes contributed most to that of axial length and spherical equivalent refraction error.

Conclusions: Four months could be a watershed age in the growth of mouse eyes. Large-span temporal recordings of refraction, ocular dimensions, and choroidal changes provided references for the study of the physiological and pathological mechanisms responsible for myopia.