With the development of modern medicine, life span has been significantly extended, and modern societies are now changing their biological distribution, where the elderly level is gaining weight in the population distribution. This fact has been associated with an increased incidence of degenerative pathologies, likely related to muscles and joints. Other musculoskeletal pathologies are not related to aging but to excessive physical exercise. In Western countries, there is a flourishing revival of healthy culture, and this is associated with an increase in musculoskeletal problems derived from incorrectly planned physical work.

The musculoskeletal research includes not only degenerative pathologies like arthritis but also muscle degeneration or ruptures, bone fractures, or tendon pathologies. In all these topics, imaging technologies have a key role in evaluating the development of the pathology and/or the effect of the potential treatments using in vivo animal models.

This collection includes a detailed description of some of the most frequent imaging protocols used in musculoskeletal research, like microCT scanning of muscle injuries using contrast agents, ultrasonography of tendinitis development, or using microPET/microCT for evaluation or immunomodulated arthritis. Imaging analysis will also be considered. Some of these protocols are already established and working, but the imaging protocols are still not well defined, and results can vary significantly if they don’t care about calibrations, doses, or acquisition times.