Abstract
A simultaneous SAXS (small-angle X-ray scattering) and WAXS (wide-angle X-ray scattering) measurement setup was installed at BL45XU in SPring-8. The system comprises of a short (specimen-to-sample distance about 50cm) vacuum path and a mosaic CCD detector. It covers a q-range of 0.02-2.5 nm−1. Using this setup, lipids in formalin-fixed rat brain were analyzed. A brain slice was moved across the X-ray beam with a step size of 0.5 mm to map reflections from lipids in various areas of brain. White matter that contains myelin gave strong lamellar reflections in the small-angle region which are often unisotropic. Gray matter shows only a central scatter in the small-angle region. In the wide angle region, both white and gray matters gave rise to sharp rings that are due to lateral packing of hydrocarbon chains in the lipid membranes. The relative intensities of these rings were different in white and gray matters, showing that the lateral arrangements of the lipids in bilayers are different.
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