Possible causes of asymmetry in the Mössbauer spectra of brain tissue

Abstract

Iron present in the human brain plays important role in neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson and Alzheimer diseases. Brain iron is mainly stored within globular protein called ferritin. Mössbauer spectra of brain tissue are asymmetric doublets at 300 K and 90 K. This asymmetry is slightly bigger in the case of samples taken from diseased subjects. Reason for this is still unknown. Few possible causes of aforesaid difference had been discussed. Nanometer-size of ferritin iron cores, pathological protein influence were taken into account. It was also discussed if experimentally available statistics is sufficient to obtain reliable asymmetry coefficient from Mössbauer spectra. Physical experiment were reproduced by means of computer simulations. Nevertheless, the reason for the asymmetry has not been completely elucidated yet.