An example of the application of Mössbauer spectroscopy for determination of concentration of iron in lyophilized brain tissue

Mössbauer spectroscopy (MS) is not a routine method for the evaluation of the concentration of iron in samples. Due to its great advantage of being a method which does not destroy the sample, it is used when one is dealing with hardly available material, like extraterrestrial samples (e.g., meteorites, lunar soil) or with biological samples, which after the Mössbauer spectroscopy measurements may be assessed by other techniques. The idea of use of MS for the evaluation of concentration of iron was proposed for the fi rst time by Herr and Skerra in 1969 [1]. These authors wanted to use MS as an alternative method for the classifi cation of meteorites. MS was used then by Morris to assess the extraterrestrial samples of lunar soil [2]. In 1994 Bauminger et al. used MS for the fi rst time to determine the concentration of iron in brain samples [3]. With the use of MS, the concentration of iron was determined in more than 100 samples of different human tissues. In 1999, Dubiel [4] applied MS for the assessment of the concentration of iron in one liver and two brain samples. Also, Trautwein [5] used MS to determine the concentration of iron in neuromelanin isolated from brain tissues. In order to determine the concentration of iron based on the analysis of An example of the application of Mössbauer spectroscopy for determination of concentration of iron in lyophilized brain tissue Patrycja Rzepecka, Przemysław Duda, Joanna Giebułtowicz, Małgorzata Sochacka, Andrzej Friedman, Jolanta Gałązka-Friedman