IRON IN PARKINSON-DISEASE, BLOOD-DISEASES, MALARIA AND FERRITIN

The concentration of iron in Substantia nigra, the part of the brain w hich is involved in Parkinson disease, has been found by Mossbauer spe ctroscopy (MS) to be similar to 160 mu g/g wet tissue and similar to 6 70 mu g/g dry weight, both in control and Parkinson samples. All the i ron observed by MS in these samples is ferritin-like iron. In several blood diseases, large amounts of ferritin-like iron have been observed in red blood cells. Desferral removed iron from serum, but not from r ed blood cells. The iron compound in the malarial pigment of human blo od infected by P. falciparum was found to be hemin-like, whereas the p igment iron in rats infected by P. berghei was different from any know n iron porphyrin.