Application of microbeam technique for the small-angle diffraction studies of a living tissue

X-ray diffraction patterns from a single hair cross-section and from the functionally different submicron fragments of a frog striated skeletal muscle sarcomere were obtained for the first time by using a microbeam on the undulator beam line ID18 of the third-generation European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF, Grenoble, France). The microbeam technique proves to be a potential tool for studying the local microstructures of various biological objects.