RESUMO
The aim of this study is to obtain information about the mouse tongue muscle rendered using micro-computed tomography (µCT) at low, middle, and high magnifications. Three-dimensional (3D) µCT is used in various fields. Most µCT observations are restricted to hard tissue in biomaterial samples. Recently, with the use of osmium tetroxide, µCT has been effectively employed to observe soft tissue; it is now believed that µCT observation of soft tissue is feasible. On the other hand, the structure of the tongue muscle has been well studied, but cross-sectional imaging enhanced by 3D rendering is lacking. We chose the mouse tongue as a soft tissue case study for µCT and generated cross-sectional images of the tongue enhanced by 3-D image rendering with histological resolution. During this observation, we developed new methods of low-magnification observation to show the relation between the tongue muscles and surrounding tissues. We also applied high-resolution µCT in high-magnification observation of muscle fiber fascicles. Our methodological techniques give the following results: (1) For low-magnification observation (field of view: 12,000 µm), pretreatment with decalcification and freeze drying is suitable for observing the area between the muscle of the tongue and the bone around the tongue using µCT. (2) For middle-magnification observation (Field of view: 3,500 µm), the use of osmium tetroxide to observe the muscle arrangement of the tongue by µCT is suitable. (3) For high-magnification observation (Field of view: 450 µm), high-resolution µCT is suitable for observation of the transversus muscle fiber fascicles.
