A combination of high gradient (0.46m T/cm) and small radiofrequency coils (8cm diameter) was used to obtain images with effective thickness of 2.0mm and pixel dimensions as small as 196$mu$ in the live chick em-bryo and surgically resected human femoral head with avascular necrosis. The signa-to-noise ratio was suffi-cient to allow identification of major anatomical structures of live chick embryo and delineation of osteonecrotic segment in femoral head. The changes of signal intensity in necrotic femoral head was well correlated with histopathologic findings, MR microscopy is considered as a good research modality in the field of embryology, teratology and MR tissue characterization.