Five ovariectomized (OVX) Brown Norway rats (Charles Rivers Laboratories, Wilmington, DE, USA) weighing 200-250 g received 10 µL of 17β-estradiol (E2) eye drops once daily in both eyes for three weeks [20]. The eye drops contained 0.1% (w/v) E2 in saline vehicle containing 20% (w/v) 2-hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin. Five OVX control rats received 10 µL of this vehicle as eye drops for the same dosing regimen and duration. After 24 h of the last treatment, the animals were euthanized by CO2 overexposure, and their eyes were immediately enucleated followed by the isolation of the retina. The tissue samples were rinsed with saline and, then, blotted dry for preparation to label-free shotgun proteomic analyses. All procedures involving animals were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at the University of North Texas Health Science Center before the initiation of the studies (approval number: 2018-0028). Directions to sample names CF1: Control (female) retina sample #1 CF2: Control (female) retina sample #2 CF3: Control (female) retina sample #3 CF4: Control (female) retina sample #4 CF5: Control (female) retina sample #5 EF1: E2-treated (female) retina sample #1 EF2: E2-treated (female) retina sample #2 EF3: E2-treated (female) retina sample #3 EF4: E2-treated (female) retina sample #4 EF5: E2-treated (female) retina sample #5