- Article
- Open access
- Published:
Scientific Reports (2026) Cite this article
We are providing an unedited version of this manuscript to give early access to its findings. Before final publication, the manuscript will undergo further editing. Please note there may be errors present which affect the content, and all legal disclaimers apply.
Abstract
Gastrointestinal motility and transit time assessment is clinically important for diagnosing motility disorders, but whole-gut gamma scintigraphy remains underutilised due to limited availability of suitable radiopharmaceuticals. This study developed a neutron-activatable, non-absorbable radiotracer for whole GI transit imaging. Polystyrene (PS) particles loaded with samarium-152 oxide (152Sm2O3) and size-fractioned (600–800 μm). Samples were neutron activated to 153Sm in a nuclear research reactor. Morphology, particle size and elemental composition were assessed using SEM/EDX and laser diffraction. Radionuclide impurity was evaluated by HPGe gamma spectrometry. Thermal profile was acquired by DSC and TGA. Radionuclide retention was quantified in simulated gastric fluid (SGF) and simulated intestinal fluid (SIF) for 120 h. Neutron activation did not alter particle morphology or size distribution. The 153Sm2O3-PS particles achieved a mean specific activity of 57.2 ± 2.0 MBq/g at 48 h post-irradiation, corresponding to an overall prepared activity of approximately 5.7 MBq per 100 mg batch. Gamma spectrometry demonstrated only the expected 153Sm photopeaks without detectable long-lived impurities. In-vitro radionuclide retention exceeded 99% in both SGF and SIF over 120 h. The 153Sm2O3-PS particles are stable, non-absorbable markers with high radionuclide purity and retention, supporting their use as a low-cost radiotracer for whole gastrointestinal transit scintigraphy. Further in vivo validation and manufacturing controls, including endotoxin and residual-monomer testing, are required before clinical use.
Subjects
Acknowledgements
The neutron activation was supported by the Malaysian Nuclear Agency.
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Reprints and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wong, Y.H., Kasbollah, A., Abdullah, B.J.J. et al. Development of samarium-153 oxide loaded polystyrene radiotracer particles for gamma scintigraphy of whole gastrointestinal transit study. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-66901-7
Download citation
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-66901-7