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. 2023 Apr 15;18(1):302.
doi: 10.1186/s13018-023-03788-4.

Research hotspots and trends of microRNAs in intervertebral disc degeneration: a comprehensive bibliometric analysis

Shuang Chen #  1 , Yi Wang #  1 , Huanxi Wu #  2 , Xiaoyang Fang  1 , Chenyu Wang  1 , Nan Wang  3 , Lin Xie  4
Affiliations

Research hotspots and trends of microRNAs in intervertebral disc degeneration: a comprehensive bibliometric analysis

Shuang Chen et al. J Orthop Surg Res. .

Abstract

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in various pathological processes, such as proliferation, growth, and apoptosis, of intervertebral disc (IVD) cells and play an important role in the development of intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD). Although some studies have reported the role of miRNAs in IDD, scientific econometric analysis in this field is not available.

Objectives: We designed this study to describe the current research trends and potential mechanisms associated with the role of miRNAs in IDD and to provide new ideas for future research in this field.

Methods: We conducted a bibliometric analysis of the publications on the role of miRNAs in IDD included in the Web of Science core collection database to elucidate the current research trends in this field. The potential mechanisms were constructed using the Arrowsmith project.

Results: We found that the number of miRNAs and IDD-related publications increased over the years. China was the most important contributor to research in this field. The top three institutions in terms of number of articles published were Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Xi'an Jiao Tong University. Shanghai Jiao Tong University had the highest number of citations. Experimental and thermal medicine had the maximum number of documents, and Cell promotion had the most citations. The journal with the most mean times cited per study was Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. The author Wang K had the highest number of publications, and Wang HQ had the highest number of citations. These two authors made important contributions to the research in this field. The keyword analysis showed that recent studies have focused on miRNAs regulating nucleus pulposus cell apoptosis and proliferation. Moreover, we revealed the potential mechanisms of miRNAs associated with IDD, including miRNAs regulating the extracellular matrix (ECM) degradation, mediating cartilage endplate (CEP) degeneration, and participating in inflammatory responses.

Conclusion: We demonstrated the knowledge map of miRNAs and IDD-related research through bibliometric analysis and elucidated the current research status and hotspots in this field. The mechanisms by which miRNAs regulate the apoptosis and proliferation of degenerated IVDs, promote ECM degradation, mediate CEP degeneration, and participate in inflammatory responses should be explored in further studies.

Keywords: Apoptosis; Bibliometrics; Degradation; Inflammation; Intervertebral disc degeneration; MicroRNAs; Proliferation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Annual and cumulative number of publications on miRNAs in IDD research
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
National/regional contributions of miRNAs and IDD-related research. A World map of the publications in the WOSCC database. The intensity of the red colour is proportional to the number of publications. The China board on the world map has the highest intensity of red colour, indicating that the maximum number of documents are published from this region. B Bubble chart of citation frequency of countries/regions. C National/regional cooperation network. The node represents the country/region, the size of the node represents its documents, and the colour of the connection between nodes represents the year of the first cooperation between nodes
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Institutional contribution on miRNAs in IDD research. A Lollipop chart of the top 10 institutions in terms of the number of documents. B Network map of the contributions and collaborations of the core institutions. The nodes indicate institutions with larger nodes indicating a larger number of documents. Different colours represent different clusters
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Journal characteristics of miRNAs and IDD-related research. A JCR partition of the journals on miRNAs and IDD-related research. B Bar chart of the top 10 journals in terms of the mean times cited per study. C Dual-map overlay of journals in the field. The dual-map overlay of journals in the field showed one main citation path in yellow. D Visual network map of core journals. Different colours represent different clusters. The nodes indicate journals, and the larger the node, the more publications in the journal. E Visual density view of the core journals. The node density size depends on the number of elements in the surrounding area and the importance of these elements. The higher the node density and closer to red, the more articles are published. Conversely, the lower the density and closer to blue, the fewer articles are published
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Core author characteristics of miRNAs and IDD. A Sankey dot plot of the top 20 authors with their institutions in terms of the number of publications. B Network map of contributions and collaborations of the core authors. Different colours represent different clusters. Each node represents an author. The size of the node is directly proportional to the importance of the author in the network
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Characteristics of highly cited and co-citation articles on miRNAs and IDD. A Overlay visualization of highly cited documents. A node represents a highly cited document. The size of the node is directly proportional to the number of times it is cited. The cold or warm colours represent the time point of the literature published. Cheng (2018a), Wang (2011), and Cheng (2018b) ranked top three in terms of citations. Wang (2011) was the earliest research paper published. B Visual network map of cited articles. Different colours represent different clusters. C Visual network map of co-citation articles. Different colours represent different clusters. The node represents the co-citation article. The size of the node is directly proportional to the number of times the co-citation article was cited. D Visual density view of co-cited references. The yellow-green colour represents the co-citation article, whose density is positively correlated with the number of citations
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Keyword analysis of miRNAs and IDD research. A Keyword clustering network map. Nodes represent keywords, and larger nodes represent more keyword occurrences. Different colours represent different clustering clusters. B Top 20 Keywords with the strongest citation bursts in the WOSCC database. Red represents a high degree of keyword emergence in this period, whereas green represents a low degree of emergence. C Thematic evolution of keywords
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
Potential keyword analysis of miRNAs and IDD research. A Venn diagrams for keywords of prediction and confirmation groups. B GO analysis of the potential key genes. C KEGG pathway enrichment analysis of the potential key genes. D PPI network and hub genes of miRNA-related targets in IDD
Fig. 9
Fig. 9
miRNAs involved in the pathogenesis of IDD
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