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REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Molecular Innate Immunity
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1519321
This article is part of the Research Topic Macrophages: Allies or merciless enemies in musculoskeletal systems View all 3 articles
Unveiling Research Hotspots: A Bibliometric Study on Macrophages in Musculoskeletal Diseases
Provisionally accepted
Yaohang Yue 1,2
Siyang Cao 1,2
Fuyang Cao 3
Yihao Wei 1,4
Aikang Li 1,2
Deli Wang 1,2
Peng Liu 1,2* Hui Zeng 1,5*
Jianjing Lin 1,6*- 1 National & Local Joint Engineering Research Centre of Orthopaedic Biomaterials, Shenzhen, China
- 2 Shenzhen Hospital, Peking University, Shenzhen, Beijing Municipality, China
- 3 Department of Orthopaedics, Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Tai Yuan, Shanxi Province, China
- 4 Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong, SAR China
- 5 Department of Gynecology, Shenzhen Second People's Hospital, the First Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China
- 6 Department of Sports Medicine, Shenzhen Hospital, Peking University, Shenzhen, China
Research on the role of macrophages in musculoskeletal (MSK) diseases has significantly increased in recent years. However, a thorough evaluation of the developmental trajectory of this field, including the contributions of prominent authors and primary research themes, remains insufficient. Furthermore, the identification of emerging research hotspots requires more detailed exploration. This study collated articles and reviews addressing "macrophages in MSK diseases" published between 2004 and 2023, with all data extracted from the Web of Science database. The collected data were analyzed using a variety of bibliometric and visualization tools, such as VOSviewer, CiteSpace, GraphPad Prism, and R packages. Results indicate that China and the United States are the leading contributors in this research domain. Among the many academic institutions involved, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the University of California stand out as the most productive. The journal "Frontiers in Immunology" had the highest publication output on this topic. The five most frequently explored research domains include Immunology, Rheumatology, Pharmacology and Pharmacy, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. These results offer a comprehensive overview of the current state of research in this field and provide meaningful insights for guiding future studies.
Keywords: macrophage, Musculoskeletal Diseases, Bibliometrics, Orthopaedics, data visualization
Received: 29 Oct 2024; Accepted: 28 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yue, Cao, Cao, Wei, Li, Wang, Liu, Zeng and Lin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Peng Liu, National & Local Joint Engineering Research Centre of Orthopaedic Biomaterials, Shenzhen, China
Hui Zeng, National & Local Joint Engineering Research Centre of Orthopaedic Biomaterials, Shenzhen, China
Jianjing Lin, National & Local Joint Engineering Research Centre of Orthopaedic Biomaterials, Shenzhen, China
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