Micro-computed tomography with iodine staining resolves the arrangement of muscle fibres

Abstract We illustrate here microCT images in which contrast between muscle and connective tissue has been achieved by means of staining with iodine. Enhancement is shown to be dependent on the concentration of iodine solution (I2 KI), time in solution and specimen size. Histological examination confirms that the arrangement of individual muscle fibres can be visualised on the enhanced microCT images, and that the iodine accumulates in the muscle fibres in preference to the surrounding connective tissues. We explore the application of this technique to describe the fibrous structure of skeletal muscle, and conclude that it has the potential to become a non-destructive and cost-effective method for investigating muscle fascicle architecture, particularly in comparative morphological studies.