Dr. Hubert P. J. van der Doef of Beatrix Children’s Hospital and the University Medical Centre Groningen, The Netherlands, trained in Utrecht and completed a fellowship in paediatric gastroenterology, hepatology, and nutrition at Groningen. He initially worked on cystic fibrosis but has since focused on vascular complications in pediatric liver transplantation, particularly how to identify and manage issues related to the hepatic artery and portal vein.

Dr. van der Doef emphasizes the importance of multi-institutional collaborations and supranational registries to understand the factors that influence clinical outcomes. Using data from the HEPATIC and PORTAL registries, supported by Delphi analysis, he contributes to developing standardized core outcome sets and evidence-based clinical guidelines for managing vascular complications in pediatric liver transplantation.

Selected Literature:

• de Ville de Goyet J et al. European Liver Transplant Registry: Donor and transplant surgery aspects of 16,641 liver transplantations in children. Hepatology 2022;75(3):634–645.

• Stevens JP et al. Portal vein complications and outcomes following pediatric liver transplantation: Data from the Society of Pediatric Liver Transplantation. Liver Transpl 2022;28(7):1196–1206.

• Li W et al. Treatment strategies for hepatic artery complications after pediatric liver transplantation: A systematic review. Liver Transpl 2024;30(2):160–169.

  Dr. Van der Doef´s favourite song: Joost Klein - Europapa

  ESPGHAN favourite Songs can be found on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0YIHKjxITLEm9XNyHyypTo

Prof Dr Yvan Vandenplas, Associate Editor of Nutrients, trained in medicine with specialty training in paediatrics at the Free University of Brussels. From the completion of his paediatric training in 1986, he moved seamlessly into an appointment in 1987 as head of the University Hospital Brussels unit for paediatric gastroenterology and nutrition. He served as Chair of Paediatrics there from 1994 to 2021.

When he stepped down from that position, what had marked every other caesura in his professional life occurred once again: he was simply too good to let wander away. He now serves as consultant and emeritus professor within the same complex of institutions in which he has spent fifty highly productive years.

Prof Vandenplas has led the recent work of the ESPGHAN Special Interest Group on Gut Microbiota and Modifications, addressing the supplementation of infant formula with biotics, including prebiotics, probiotics, postbiotics, synbiotics, and manufactured human milk oligosaccharides. These efforts have resulted in a series of technical reviews and recommendations that are poised to serve as practical clinical guidelines; the bibliographic list appears below.

He challenges listeners: with this literature as your guide, would you recommend adding “biotics” to infant formula—and why or why not? Which biotics would you choose? And with regard to human milk oligosaccharides, do you believe a “more-is-better” shotgun approach is preferable, or should specific oligosaccharides be selected and modified to address allergy risk or to mirror shifts in breast milk composition as the infant ages?

In short, the future is already here, and caregivers would do well to keep pace.

Titles

Recommendations on the Health Outcomes of Infant Formula Supplemented with Bioticsby the European Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition (ESPGHAN) Special Interest Group on Gut Microbiota and Modifications

Technical Review by the ESPGHAN Special Interest Group on Gut Microbiota and Modifications on the Health Outcomes of Infant Formula Supplemented with Postbiotics

Literature

Dinleyici EC et al. Technical review by the ESPGHAN special interest group on gut microbiota and modifications on the health outcomes of infant formula supplemented with probiotics. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2025 May 12. doi: 10.1002/jpn3.70068. Online ahead of print. PMID: 40356343.

Hojsak I et al. Technical review by the ESPGHAN special interest group on gut microbiota and modifications on the health outcomes of infant formula supplemented with manufactured human milk oligosaccharides. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2025 Mar 24. doi: 10.1002/jpn3.70032. Online ahead of print. PMID: 40123480.

Mihatsch W et al. Technical review by the ESPGHAN special interest group on gut microbiota and modifications on the health outcomes of infant formula supplemented with prebiotics. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2025 May 19. doi: 10.1002/jpn3.70064. Online ahead of print. PMID: 40384260.

Salvatore S et al. Technical review by the ESPGHAN special interest group on gut microbiota and modifications on the health outcomes of infant formula supplemented with synbiotics. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2025 Mar 21. doi: 10.1002/jpn3.70031. Online ahead of print. PMID: 40114538.

Dr. Vandenplas´s favourite song: Louis Neefs - Wat Een Leven

ESPGHAN favourite Songs can be found on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0YIHKjxITLEm9XNyHyypTo

A round of applause, dear readers: We’ve made it into, good Heavens, 2026! Breasted the tape? Or limped across the finish line? No matter. To mis-quote Scripture, that is of course Stephen Sondheim: We’re still here.

Among the “we,” and our lodestar, is Dr Jake Mann. He’s selected two articles for consideration: From Jezequel M et al., in work done at Lille, J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr brings us – Splenic stiffness does not predict esophageal varices in children with portal hypertension; and from a cluster of Parisian institutions, by Grimaud E et al. and published in Hepatology – Serum bile acid levels predict the development of portal hypertension and high-risk esophageal varices following successful Kasai in biliary atresia. In short: How to foretell the variceal future.

What sorts of cohorts were assembled, and what data were collected? How were those data analysed? All-comers in Lille, in Paris persons with a certain disorder treated in a certain way with a certain age and meeting certain clinical criteria… A lot to sort out here, and the comparisons and contrasts are better listened to than read, you’ll agree. Or:

Back to Sondheim, in the tale of Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street, who shaved the faces of gentlemen / Who never thereafter were heard of again…

What happened next?Well, that’s the play –And he wouldn’t want us to give it away.

Happy listening! Enjoy ESPGHAN Journal Club – enjoy the play!

Literature

Grimaud E et al. Serum bile acid levels predict the development of portal hypertension and high-risk esophageal varices following successful Kasai in biliary atresia. Hepatology 2025 Oct 23. DOI: 10.1097/HEP.0000000000001592. Online ahead of print. PMID: 41129338

Jezequel M et al. Splenic stiffness does not predict esophageal varices in children with portal hypertension. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr 2026 Jan; 82(1):156–164. DOI: 10.1002/jpn3.70247. Epub 2025 Oct 27. PMID: 41144851. PMCID: PMC12780471