Sarcomere length was measured immediately after boning and after 14 d pm. For HBVFC-treated muscles it was measured soon after very fast chilling. The method utilized was a general histological processing for the morphometric analysis of length. Muscle fragments, with their principal axes oriented along the muscle fiber were collected from the same inner LL muscle position. After washing the fragments with physiological solution, they were laid on aluminum foil containing CRYOform™ and frozen with liquid nitrogen in an n-hexane solution. Sections 6 μm in thickness were cut using a cryotome (IEC-USA). The images were captured with a microscope (Eclipse 800, Nikon, Japan) and digital camera (CoolSnap-Pro Digital Media Cybernetics, USA) and processed with the ImagePro-Plus Software Media Cybernetics, USA.