Mössbauer spectroscopy study of iron overloaded livers

The magnetic susceptibilities of iron deposits in thalassaemic spleen tissue

“…The Mössbauer spectra recorded for all of the tissues in this study consisted of a central doublet characteristic of high-spin Fe(III) superposed on a spectral sextet, the sextet being due to magnetic-hyperfine-field splitting of the 57 Fe nuclear energy levels. Similar central doublet and sextet signals have been observed in previous reports of Mössbauer spectra of human tissues or extracts from human tissues [13,16,29,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43]. On the basis of these previous reports these spectral components can be identified as being due to polynuclear iron(III) oxyhydroxide deposits in the tissue.…”

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

“…A major feature in all spectra, especially the thalassaemic ones, was a wide doublet with δ≈0.46 mm/s and ΔΕq≈0.74 mm/s. This doublet was observed in previous Mössbauer studies, in samples of various organs from humans and animals, and it was attributed to ferritin-like iron [8][9][10]16]. The use of one doublet to fit this ferritin-like iron (as in most previous studies) was inadequate, therefore two subdoublets were used which improved the fitting.…”

“…MS spectra derived from normal human liver and spleen samples [8] indicated the presence of iron in the form of ferrihydrite, together with some deoxyhemoglobin and methemoglobin in some samples. Tissue samples from iron overloaded livers [9] were also studied. In these livers, in addition to ferritin and hemosiderin, a new iron molecular environment typical of high spin ferric iron, characterized by a superparamagnetic behaviour, which begins at high temperature (above 77 K) was found.…”

Mössbauer spectroscopy: Application in biomedical research

“…Ferritin-like iron was also found in serum of thalassemic blood while in patient with idiopathic hemochromatosis ferritin-like iron was found in serum only [10]. The studies of heart, spleen and liver tissues from patients with β-thalassemia showed that Mössbauer spectra of patient's tissues contained higher quantities of ferritin and hemosiderin in comparison to normal tissues [11][12][13][14][15]. The toxicity of a large amount of iron in tissues is a serious problem in iron overload diseases.…”