Mössbauer spectroscopy study of iron overloaded livers

Absorption 57Fe Mössbauer spectra have been carried out directly on fresh or lyophylized tissues of liver with either normal iron depot or iron overload. Two types of overloading have been studied: primary iron overload due to an excessive intestinal iron absorption and secondary iron overload (hemosiderosis) produced in beta-thalassemia patients by hypertransfusional therapeutics. The Mössbauer spectra, at room temperature, 77 and 4.2 K, on normal liver samples, are typical for the ferritin-hemosiderin compounds. In the spectra, performed on hemosiderosis liver samples, there appears, in addition to ferritin and hemosiderin, a new iron molecular environment, typical of high spin ferric iron and characterized by a superparamagnetic behaviour which begins at high temperature (above 77 K). This new component does not show up in the primary iron overload cases and seems characteristic of the physiological process which induces the iron overload.