Biologically significant iron(III) oxyhydroxy polymers: Mössbauer spectroscopic study of ferritin and hemosiderin in pancreas tissue of β-thalassemia/hemoglobin E disease

Abstract

Mössbauer spectra of pancreas tissue from β-thalassemia/hemoglobin E patients as well as purified ferritin and crude hemosiderin isolated from this tissue were recorded. Mössbauer spectroscopy of the ferritin showed that it contains iron cores based on the ferrihydrite (5Fe2O3·9H2O) structure consistent with previously reported electron diffraction data [T.G. St. Pierre, K.C. Tran, J. Webb, D.J. Macey, B.R. Heywood, N.H. Sparks, V.J. Wade, S. Mann and P. Pootrakul, Biol. Metals, 4 (1991) 162]. Cores in the crude hemosiderin are mainly of the ferrihydrite type but a significant amount have a defect goethite (α-FeOOH) structure. These data are interpreted in terms of the long-term deposition of iron in the pancreas in this iron overload pathology.