Investigation of oxyhemoglobin in leukaemic patients

Applications of Mössbauer Spectroscopy in Biomedical Research

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 ⁵⁷Fe, ⁵⁷Co, ¹¹⁹Sn, ¹⁵³Sm, and ¹⁹⁷Au Mössbauer nuclides are presented.

Mössbauer spectroscopy in biomedical research

This work discusses the main directions and results of the application of Mössbauer spectroscopy of iron containing species in biomedical research. These studies demonstrate the wide possibilities of Mössbauer spectroscopy to obtain physical parameters and information about the iron electronic structure in normal and pathological biomolecules, model compounds and pharmaceutical samples as well as about qualitative and quantitative changes of iron containing biomolecules during pathological processes or the effect of environmental factors. The results obtained may be useful for further understanding of the molecular nature of diseases and pathological processes.