Applications of Mössbauer Spectroscopy in Biomedical Research

Abstract

A brief review on the applications of Mössbauer spectroscopy in biomedical research discusses the results of more than fifty years of experience in this field. Basing on the numerous results the main directions of biomedical applications of Mössbauer spectroscopy are considered as follows: 1) studies of the quantitative changes of iron-containing biomolecules related to pathological processes; 2) studies of the qualitative changes in iron-containing biomolecules related to pathological processes; 3) studies of the effect of various environmental factors (physical, chemical, and biological) on iron-containing biomolecules; 4) studies of metabolic processes by means of analysis of the Mössbauer nuclides pathways in organisms; 5) studies of dynamic processes; 6) studies of pharmaceutical compounds and blood substitutes containing Mössbauer nuclides; 7) miscellaneous studies. Some examples of biomedical research using Fe,Co, Sn,Sm, and Au Mössbauer nuclides are presented.

The Mössbauer effect using 57Fe-ferrabisdicarbollide ([o-57FESAN]−): a glance into the potential of a low-dose approach for glioblastoma radiotherapy

“…In fact, in biological systems, iron is by far one of the most structurally and relevant metal ions and 57 Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy has been very useful in the elucidation of the electronic structures of iron-containing biomolecules, the role of iron in living processes and pathological changes in living systems, organs and tissues. 3–6…”

Applications of Mössbauer Spectroscopy in Meteoritical and Planetary Science, Part I: Undifferentiated Meteorites

“…The brief explanation of details and the basic principles of the Mössbauer effect and spectroscopy, which have been recently considered in [30,138] (see also references therein and in the Introduction), are adapted and presented below. If we consider the case of a free Interaction of the nuclear quadrupole moment Q with the electric field gradient (EFG) at the nucleus position leads to the splitting of degenerated excited state into two sub-states with the energies W Q described by the equation:…”

Phase-sensitive nuclear target spectroscopy

“…Finally, we note that the PHANTASY method crucially relies on an event-based detection method, which allows one 023397- 13 to analyze the data after the experiment with respect to an arbitrary combination of the experimental parameters. For instance, this capability is the key requirement for the ϕ 0 and t filters proposed here, and we expect that these methods to separate otherwise indistinguishable signal contributions will find further applications beyond the PHANTASY method.…”

“…These are narrow due to the Mössbauer effect, i.e., the recoil-free interaction between x-rays and matter [9]. They can be viewed as almost ideal two-level systems, have very high quality factor, and form the basis for a wide range of applications [10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. However, due to the exceptionally small line width, dispersive or diffractive elements to directly spectrally resolve their response are not readily available.…”