Multiscale x-ray analysis of biological cells and tissues by scanning diffraction and coherent imaging

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Understanding muscle contraction has a rich history in biophysical research, with X-ray diffraction being a pivotal technique for examining the nanometer-sized machinery responsible for force generation. Modern X-ray sources now deliver billions of photons in microsecond intervals, facilitating fast time-resolved experiments that illuminate the complex interplay between muscle structure and function. This research advances a scanning scheme that applies X-ray diffraction to soft biological tissues, particularly muscle. It emphasizes extracting quantitative structural parameters, such as the interfilament distance in cardiac muscle's actomyosin lattice. The method adapts to image biological samples across various scales, from isolated cells to millimeter-sized tissue sections. Given the technique's 'photon-hungry' nature, it is often combined with full-field imaging techniques. Among the available microscopic tools, coherent full-field X-ray imaging stands out as particularly effective. This multimodal approach enables the correlation of two- and three-dimensional images of cells and tissues with diffraction maps of structural parameters. The tools developed here enhance the efficiency of scanning X-ray diffraction for analyzing soft biological tissues, paving the way for future applications in biophysical and biomedical research.