Global Trends and Hotspots on Microglia Associated with Pain from 2002 to 2022: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Background

Researchers have made significant progress in microglia associated with pain in recent years. However, more relevant bibliometric analyses are still needed on trends and directions in this field. The aim of this study is to provide a comprehensive perspective and to predict future directions of pain-related microglia research via bibliometric tools.

Methods

English articles and reviews related with pain and microglia were extracted from the Web of Science core collection (WosCC) database between 2002 to 2022. Bibliometric tools such as VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and Bibliometrix R package were used to analyze publication characteristics, countries, authors, institutions, journals, research hotspots, and trend topics.

Results

A total of 2761 articles were included in this analysis. Research on microglia associated with pain has increased significantly over the last two decades. China (n = 1020, 36.94%) and the United States (n = 751, 27.20%) contributed the most in terms of publications and citations, respectively. Kyushu University published the most articles in this field compared to other institutions, and Professor Inoue Kazuhide (n = 54) at this university made outstanding contributions in this field. Molecular Pain (n = 113) was the journal with the most publication, while Journal of Neuroscience had the highest number of citations. According to the authors keywords analysis, the research in this area can be summarized into 7 clusters such as “microglia activation pathways”, “pain treatment research”, “mental symptoms of chronic pain”, and so on.

Conclusion

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of pain-related microglia research in the past two decades. We identified the countries, institutions, scholars, and journals with the highest number of publications and the most influence in the field, and the research trends identified in this paper may provide new insights for future research.

Keywords:

• microglia
• pain
• bibliometrics
• VOSviewer
• CiteSpace

Abbreviations

ACC, anterior cingulate cortex; ACPP, the average citation per paper; BDI, Beck Depression Inventory; BDNF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor; CCI, chronic constriction injury; CGRP, calcitonin gene-related peptide; DRG, dorsal root ganglion; HP, hippocampus; IASP, International Association for the Study of Pain; MPFC, medial prefrontal cortex; NC, the number of citations; NP, the number of publications; SCIE, the Science Citation Index-expanded; SGCs, satellite glial cells; SSCI, the Social Sciences Citation Index; WosCC, Web of Science core collection.

Data Sharing Statement

The datasets supporting the conclusions of this article are included within the article.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81473759).