Visualization, modeling and analysis of salmon muscle structure: Based on micro-CT

Seafood analogs using culture cells or plant-based materials are rising for future food supply, but their bionic design is still an issue on finely simulating the multiscale structure and function of fishes. For salmon, we compared the back, belly and tail tissues via micro computed tomography (micro-CT) scanning with optimized tissue contrast and spatial resolution. The optimum staining conditions of salmon muscle tissue for micro-CT was 3.75 % IKI (iodine-potassium iodide) solution for 7 days, and the muscle could be separated well from fat and connective tissue. The results of visualization analysis were correlated with the texture profile analysis. A relatively high magnification (3 µm/pixel) was used with fiber tracing procedure to analyze the connection of muscle fiber bundles surrounded by soft tissue. Single muscle fiber (e.g., diameter 117 µm) was successfully and artificially separated from whole visualized tissue through manual division. Overall, this study showed a novel ultra-high-resolution method based on micro-CT to conduct digital analysis of muscle fascicle architecture, and constructed printable model of bionic animal/plant tissue for food design.