Comparative analysis of sample preparation protocols of soft biological tissues for morphometric studies using synchrotron-based X-ray microtomography.

The spread of microtomography as a tool for visualization of soft tissues has had a significant impact on a better understanding of complex biological systems. This technique allows a detailed three-dimensional quantitative view of the specimen to be obtained, correlating its morphological organization with its function, providing valuable insights on the functionality of the tissue. Regularly overlooked, but of great importance, proper sample mounting and preparation are fundamental for achieving the highest possible image quality even for the high-resolution imaging systems currently under development.

Gold Nanoparticles for X-ray Microtomography of Neurons.

Commonly used methods to visualize the biological structure of brain tissues at subcellular resolution are confocal microscopy and two-photon microscopy. Both require slicing the sample into sections of a few tens of micrometers. The recent developments in X-ray microtomography enable three-dimensional imaging at sub-micrometer and isotropic resolution with larger biological samples.