57Fe enrichment in mice for β-thalassaemia studies via Mössbauer spectroscopy of blood samples

Abstract

In this work, wild-type and heterozygous β-thalassaemic mice were enriched with 57 Fe through gastrointestinal absorption to characterize in more details the iron complexes appeared in the measured Mössbauer spectra. The 57 Fe enrichment method was validated and Mössbauer spectra were obtained at 80K from blood samples from wild-type and β-thalassaemic mice at 1, 3, 6, and 9 months of age. As expected, the haemoglobin levels of the thalassaemic mice were lower than from normal mice indicating anaemia. Furthermore, significant amounts of ferritin-like iron were observed in the thalassaemic mice samples, which decreased with mouse age, reflecting the pattern of reticulocyte count reduction reported in the literature.

Methods to identify and characterize iron–sulfur oligopeptides in water

“…127 Importantly, absorption is directly correlated to concentration, so the relative ratios of resonant nuclei can be discerned. Limitations of the technique include the need for 57 Fe labelled samples to absorb the c-rays emitted from the 57 Co source, [128][129][130] and the need to either work with frozen samples at low temperatures or with precipitated complexes at higher temperature, i.e., the sample must be in the solid state to exploit the Mössbauer effect. If not in the solid state, nuclear recoil experienced by the emitting 57 Co and absorbing 57 Fe nuclei leads to energy loss and decreased absorption.…”

Study of iron complexes in visceral organs and brain from a 57Fe enriched β-thalassaemia mouse model via Mössbauer spectroscopy

“…For the purposes of this study, wild-type C57BL/6, and heterozygous thalassaemic (th3/+) mice were raised and enriched with 57 Fe as described in Charitou et al [15]. Due to the fact that MS measurements of bio-samples are time-consuming and also that the 57 Fe isotope used for enrichment is fairly expensive, only one sample per group (th/3+ and wild-type) and age (1, 3, 6, 9 months) could be prepared and studied.…”

“…In a previous work [14], we demonstrated that the thalassaemic mouse model is a good candidate to study thalassaemia by means of Mössbauer spectroscopy. Subsequently, heterozygous thalassaemic (th3/+) and wild-type (C57BL/6) mice were enriched with Fe 57 [15] via gastrointestinal absorption to increase the statistics of the spectra.…”

Phase transformations and magnetostriction in Fe100−xGax bulk alloys

“…Magnetic CEMS spectra were fitted with a discrete distribution of hyperfine fields B hf with a least-squares procedure [36]. A correlation between hyperfine field and isomer shift δ was used to take into account the Fe environment distribution [37][38][39][40]. δ values at the 57 Fe nuclei are given relative to α-Fe at room temperature.…”