Transverse section through mouse soleus muscle

A section 10 micrometres thick has been cut through the belly of a soleus muscle taken from the lower leg of a mouse, and stained using immunohistochemistry in order to identify certain features. Laminin (magenta) can be seen surrounding individual fibres of the muscle, marking what is known as the basement membrane, neurofilament (yellow) is found in nerves within the muscle, and DAPI (cyan) marks nuclei where the genetic material, DNA, is kept in all cells. At least two muscle spindles can be observed within the section. These are the circular structures, slightly larger than the individual muscle fibres found on the left of the section. Muscle spindles are proprioceptive structures that are important for sensing the state of muscle contraction and therefore relay internal information on the body's position. Width of image is approximately 2 millimetres.