Coherent x-ray imaging of collagen fibril distributions within intact tendons

The characterization of the structure of highly hierarchical biosamples such as collagen-based tissues at the scale of tens of nanometers is essential to correlate the tissue structure with its growth processes. Coherent x-ray Bragg ptychography is an innovative imaging technique that gives high resolution images of the ordered parts of such samples. Herein, we report how we used this method to image the collagen fibrillar ultrastructure of intact rat tail tendons. The images show ordered fibrils extending over 10-20 μm in length, with a quantifiable D-banding spacing variation of 0.2%. Occasional defects in the fibrils distribution have also been observed, likely indicating fibrillar fusion events.