Biophysical Journal 5: 823-844 (1965)
© 1965 the Biophysical Society

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Mössbauer Effect in Hemoglobin and Some Iron-Containing Biological Compounds

ABSTRACT

The Mössbauer effect in Fe⁵⁷ has been used to study the molecules, hemoglobin, O₂-hemoglobin, CO₂-hemoglobin, and CO-hemoglobin (within red cells) and the molecules, hemin and hematin (in the crystalline state). Quadrupole splittings and isomeric shifts observed in the Mössbauer spectra of these molecules are tabulated. The temperature dependence of the quadrupole splitting and relative recoil-free fraction for hemoglobin with different ligands has been investigated. An estimate of the Debye-Waller factor in O₂-hemoglobin at 5°K is 0.83. An asymmetry in the quadrupole splitting observed in hemoglobin is attributed to a directional dependence of the recoil-free fraction which establishes the sign of the electric field gradient in the molecule and indicates that the lowest lying d orbital of the Fe atoms is |xy>. This asymmetry indicates that the iron atoms in hemoglobin are vibrating farther perpendicular to the heme planes than parallel to them, and, in fact, the ratio of the mean square displacements perpendicular and parallel to the heme planes in hemoglobin is 5.5 at 5°K. The temperature dependence of the quadrupole splitting in hemoglobin has been used to estimate a splitting between the lowest lying iron atom d orbitals of 420 cm^-1.