Mapping the research trends of astrocytes in stroke: A bibliometric analysis

Zhibin Ding; Nan Jiang; Ting Yang; Hongxia Han; Miaomiao Hou; Gajendra Kumar; Yige Wu; Lijuan Song; Xinyi Li; Cungen Ma; Yanbing Su

doi:10.3389/fncel.2022.949521

Mapping the research trends of astrocytes in stroke: A bibliometric analysis

Front Cell Neurosci. 2022 Sep 8:16:949521. doi: 10.3389/fncel.2022.949521. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Zhibin Ding^{1

2}, Nan Jiang¹, Ting Yang¹, Hongxia Han³, Miaomiao Hou¹, Gajendra Kumar⁴, Yige Wu², Lijuan Song², Xinyi Li¹, Cungen Ma², Yanbing Su⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, Third Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Shanxi Bethune Hospital, Shanxi Academy of Medical Sciences, Tongji Shanxi Hospital, Taiyuan, China.
² The Key Research Laboratory of Benefiting Qi for Acting Blood Circulation Method to Treat Multiple Sclerosis of State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Research Center of Neurobiology, Shanxi University of Chinese Medicine, Jinzhong, China.
³ Shanxi Cardiovascular Hospital, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China.
⁴ Department of Neuroscience, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
⁵ General Surgery Department, Third Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Shanxi Bethune Hospital, Shanxi Academy of Medical Sciences, Tongji Shanxi Hospital, Taiyuan, China.

Abstract

Background: Stroke, including ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic stroke, possesses complex pathological mechanisms such as neuroinflammation, oxidative stress and blood-brain barrier damage. Astrocyte functions have been reported during injury, neuroprotection and cell crosstalk. It plays a key role in exacerbating stroke injury, promoting neurological repair and enhancing neuroregeneration.

Aim: This holistic bibliometric analysis aimed to provide a general overview of the recent advancement and the hotspots in the field of stroke and astrocyte from 2001 to 2021.

Materials and methods: Publications between 2001 and 2021, related to stroke and astrocyte were retrieved from the Web of Science (WOS) and analyzed in Gephi and VOSviewer.

Results: In total, 3789 documents were extracted from the WOS databases. The publications showed stable growth since 2001. The United States and China were the most prolific countries and University of California San Francisco and Oakland University were the most influential institutes. The top four most productive journals were Brain Research, Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, Glia and Journal of Neuroinflammation. Keywords frequency and co-occurrence analysis revealed that the topics related to "micro-RNA", "toll like receptor", "neuroinflammation", "autophagy" and "interleukin" were research frontiers. The field of stroke and astrocyte focused on several aspects, such as the role of astrocytes in the treatment of stroke, metabolic changes in astrocytes, the protective role of apoptosis in astrocytes after oxidative stress injury and neurovascular units.

Conclusion: This comprehensive bibliometric study provides an updated perspective on the trend of research associated with stroke and astrocyte. It will benefit scientific community to identify the important issues, future directions and provide a novel understanding of stroke pathophysiology, hotspots and frontiers to facilitate future research direction.

Keywords: astrocytes; bibliometric analysis; citation analysis; scientific outputs; stroke.