Figure 1. Retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) flatmount preparation. A: Post-mortem eye is grossly inspected. B: The eye is opened coronally and the anterior portion of the eye is removed, thus leaving a posterior optic nerve (asterix), sclera, choroid, RPE, retina including the macula (arrowhead) with the retinal vessels (arrow) and vitreous preparation. C: The posterior preparation is microdissected into six radial anterior-posterior petals. D: The sclera is removed from the petals leaving a retina, RPE, choroid preparation. E: The retina and vitreous are removed, thus leaving an RPE, Bruch's membrane, choroid preparation; macula (arrowhead); optic nerve defect (asterix). F: The RPE was stained with AF635-phalloidin pseudo colored with green and examined by confocal microscopy, thus yielding an RPE mosaic. This method of preparation is similar to that which we previously reported [13].