Stem Cell Therapy for Neuropathic Pain: A Bibliometric and Visual Analysis

Houming Kan; Lijun Fan; Xiaodie Gui; Xiaoqiang Li; Sen Yang; Yuting Huang; Liping Chen; Wen Shen

doi:10.2147/JPR.S365524

Stem Cell Therapy for Neuropathic Pain: A Bibliometric and Visual Analysis

J Pain Res. 2022 Jun 23:15:1797-1811. doi: 10.2147/JPR.S365524. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Houming Kan^#^{1

2

3}, Lijun Fan^#^{1

2

3}, Xiaodie Gui^#⁴, Xiaoqiang Li⁴, Sen Yang⁴, Yuting Huang⁴, Liping Chen⁴, Wen Shen⁴

Affiliations

¹ Jiangsu Province Key Laboratory of Anesthesiology, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.
² Jiangsu Province Key Laboratory of Anesthesia and Analgesia Application Technology, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.
³ NMPA Key Laboratory for Research and Evaluation of Narcotic and Psychotropic Drugs, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.
⁴ Department of Pain, Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Purpose: Neuropathic pain is intractable and current treatment modalities are ineffective to cure this intractable pain, which has become a global problem. In recent years, there have been an increasing number of studies on stem cell therapy for neuropathic pain that have shown enormous potential. Using a visual analysis approach of the existing literature on stem cell therapy for neuropathic pain, we hope to understand the current research status and hot issues in this field and to provide valuable predictions for future research in this field.

Methods: We used Citespace software to visually analyze 291 articles and reviews indexed by the Web of Science Core Collection Database exploring stem cell-based treatment of neuropathic pain from 1995 to 2021. The Gunnmap online world map evaluated the number of countries and regional articles separately. Microsoft Excel 2016 was used to generate a graph of trends in annual publications.

Results: Visualization analysis revealed that the number of publications has increased yearly. The top three countries in terms of number of articles published are United States, China, and Japan. Analysis of highly co-cited articles revealed that the contents of these articles primarily involved the expression of IL-1β, IL-10, NPY, TRPA1, p-p38, p-ERK1/2, TGF-β, PKCδ, CaMKIIɑ, P2X4, P2X7 and TNF-ɑ. Keywords and citation burst analysis demonstrated that activation, regeneration, chemotherapy, and expression are likely the research hotspots and future directions of stem cell research in neuropathic pain.

Conclusion: Stem cell therapy may be a potential means of future treatment of neuropathic pain. The study of the mechanisms underlying stem cell therapy for neuropathic pain is still a focus of future research.

Keywords: CiteSpace; Web of Science; bibliometric analysis; neuropathic pain; stem cell; visualization analysis.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Key Project of the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Education Department (16KJA320002), Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (KYCX22_2955).