X-ray microtomography in biology

Abstract

Progress in high-resolution x-ray microtomography has provided us with a practical approach to determining three-dimensional (3D) structures of opaque samples at micrometer to submicrometer resolution. In this review, we give an introduction to hard x-ray microtomography and its application to the visualization of 3D structures of biological soft tissues. Practical aspects of sample preparation, handling, data collection, 3D reconstruction, and structure analysis are described. Furthermore, different sample contrasting methods are approached in detail. Examples of microtomographic studies are overviewed to present an outline of biological applications of x-ray microtomography. We also provide perspectives of biological microtomography as the convergence of sciences in x-ray optics, biology, and structural analysis.

55 pages, 8 figures, 84 references

References in corpus (3)

• Three-dimensional microtomographic imaging of human brain cortex
• Estimation of presampling modulation transfer function in synchrotron radiation microtomography
• Submicrometer tomographic resolution examined using a micro-fabricated test object

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Three-dimensional network of Drosophila brain hemisphere
• Three-dimensional X-ray visualization of axonal tracts in mouse brain hemisphere
• Tensile rupture of medial arterial tissue studied by X-ray micro-tomography on stained samples
• X-ray microtomographic visualization of Escherichia coli by metalloprotein overexpression