Research Hotspots and Trends on Acupuncture for Anti-Inflammation: A Bibliometric Analysis from 2011 to 2021

Abstract

Purpose

We here explored the research status, research hotspots, and development trend of acupuncture against inflammation from both quantitative and qualitative aspects through bibliometrics.

Methods

We used CiteSpace and VOSviewer to analyze the literature about acupuncture against inflammation from 2011 to 2021 in the Web of Science Core Collection database by using a visual knowledge map.

Results

In total, 1479 articles were included, and the number of articles published each year exhibited an upward trend. The largest number of articles were published in China (661), followed by the United States (287) and South Korea (164). The most productive institution is Beijing University of Chinese Medicine (72), while the most influential institution is the Capital Medical University (0.28). Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (131) is the journal that published most articles on the topic. Lin Yiwen is the most prolific author, and Borovikova L is the most influential co-cited author. The keywords that have burst in the last 2 years are inflammation and activation. The keywords with the highest frequency of use are electroacupuncture (EA), inflammation, and expression.

Conclusion

The number of publications on acupuncture for anti-inflammation research is rapidly increasing. China is a productive country, but the influence of centrality is poor. Research institutions are concentrated in universities, and the whole collaborative network needs to be strengthened. The anti-inflammatory mechanism of acupuncture is the main focus of research in this field. Regulation of immune cell balance by acupuncture may be a hot topic in mechanism research. At present, immune cells, vagus nerve, signal pathway, inflammatory corpuscles, cytokines and neurotransmitters are popular research topics. In the future, the basic research of acupuncture for anti-inflammation transformed into clinical practice may be a trend. EA and bee venom acupuncture may be promising research directions for acupuncture treatment for inflammatory diseases.

Keywords:

• acupuncture
• anti-inflammation
• bibliometric analysis
• CiteSpace
• VOSviewer

Data Sharing Statement

The data used to support the present findings are available from the corresponding author upon a reasonable request.

Disclosure

Bing Chen and Di Liu are co-first authors for this study. The authors declare no conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the key project of the Key Laboratory of Ningxia Ethnomedicine Modernization, Ministry of Education (Project No. XZ 2021008) and the Natural Science Foundation of Ningxia (Project No. 2020 AAC 03173).