Neural Regeneration Research ›› 2021, Vol. 16 ›› Issue (8): 1628-1637.doi: 10.4103/1673-5374.303032

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Research trends, hot spots and prospects for necroptosis in the field of neuroscience

Wei-Tao Yan1, #, Shuang Lu1, #, Yan-Di Yang1, Wen-Ya Ning2, Yan Cai3, Xi-Min Hu1, Qi Zhang1, Kun Xiong1, 4, *#br#   

  1. 1Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, School of Basic Medical Science, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, China; 2Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, China; 3Department of Histology and Embryology, School of Basic Medical Science, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, China; 4Hunan Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Changsha, Hunan Province, China
  • Online:2021-08-15 Published:2021-01-13
  • Contact: Kun Xiong, PhD, xiongkun2001@163.com.
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Nos. 81772134, 81971891, and 81571939 (to KX); the Key Research and Development Program of Hunan Province of China, No. 2018SK2091 (to KX); Hunan Provincial Innovation Foundation For Postgraduate, No. CX20200116 (to WTY); Wu JiePing Medical Foundation of the Minister of Health of China, No. 320.6750.14118 (to KX); Foundation of Science and Technology of Hunan Province of China, No. 2018JJ2552 (to YC); the Project of Graduate Independent Exploration and Innovation Plan of Central South University of China, No. 2020zzts218 (to WTY). 

Abstract: There are two types of cell death-apoptosis and necrosis. Apoptosis is cell death regulated by cell signaling pathways, while necrosis has until recently been considered a passive mechanism of cell death caused by environmental pressures. However, recent studies show that necrosis can also be regulated by specific cell signaling pathways. This mode of death, termed necroptosis, has been found to be related to the occurrence and development of many diseases. We used bibliometrics to analyze the global output of literature on necroptosis in the field of neuroscience published in the period 2007–2019 to identify research hotspots and prospects. We included 145 necroptosis-related publications and 2239 references published in the Web of Science during 2007–2019. Visualization analysis revealed that the number of publications related to necroptosis has increased year by year, reaching a peak in 2019. China is the country with the largest number of publications. Key word and literature analyses demonstrated that mitochondrial function change, stroke, ischemia/reperfusion and neuroinflammation are likely the research hotspots and future directions of necroptosis research in the nervous system. The relationship between immune response-related factors, damage-associated molecular patterns, pathogen-associated molecular patterns and necroptosis may become a potential research hotspot in the future. Taken together, our findings suggest that although the inherent limitations of bibliometrics may affect the accuracy of the literature-based prediction of research hotspots, the results obtained from the included publications can provide a reference for the study of necroptosis in the field of neuroscience.

Key words: bibliometric analysis, citations, CiteSpace, h-index, necroptosis, network analysis, neuroscience, output, VOSviewer, Web of Science