In vivo X-ray cine-tomography for tracking morphological dynamics

Significance X-ray microtomography is a well-established tool to study the three-dimensional morphology of static biological samples. To capture motion in living specimen in real time, movies of X-ray projections are frequently used. However, the resulting loss of information about the third spatial dimension has limited the applicability of such acquisition protocols. Now, by combining ultrafast X-ray microtomography and sophisticated motion analysis, we developed X-ray cine-tomography as a tool to visualize the internal dynamics of nontranslucent millimeter-sized samples in three-dimensional space. We demonstrate the technique by analyzing the fast-moving screw-and-nut–type hip joint inside a living weevil. The method may be applied to a wide range of samples and processes across materials and life sciences.