To our knowledge, this is the first report of ectopic thyroid tissue presenting as a submandibular mass and causing hyperthyroidism. Removal of the submandibular mass resulted in normalisation of thyroid function, and subsequent reduction in the patient's antithyroid medication dosage. Ectopic thyroid tissue should be suspected in any patient with a submandibular mass. Prior to resection of such a lesion, it is essential to ensure that normal, functioning thyroid tissue is present elsewhere. Ectopic thyroid tissue can also present with pathology similar to that affecting the normal thyroid gland.
Intestinal failure (IF), following extensive anatomical or functional loss of small intestine (SI), has debilitating long-term effects on infants and children with this condition. Priority of care is to increase the child’s length of functional intestine, jejunum in particular, to improve nutritional independence. Here we report a robust protocol for reconstruction of autologous intestinal mucosal grafts using primary IF patient materials. Human jejunal intestinal organoids derived from paediatric IF patients can be expanded efficiently in vitro with region-specific markers preserved after long-term culture. Decellularized human intestinal matrix with intact ultrastructure is used as biological scaffolds. Proteomic and Raman spectroscopic analyses reveal highly analogous biochemical composition of decellularized human SI and colon matrix, implying that they can both be utilised as scaffolds for jejunal graft reconstruction. Indeed, seeding of primary human jejunal organoids to either SI or colonic scaffolds in vitro can efficiently reconstruct functional jejunal grafts with persistent disaccharidase activity as early as 4 days after seeding, which can further survive and mature after transplantation in vivo. Our findings pave the way towards regenerative medicine for IF patients.
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