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REVIEW article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Gastrointestinal and Hepatic Pharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1571879
This article is part of the Research TopicUnraveling the Molecular Web of Inflammation and Fibrosis: Pathways, Immune Interactions, Epigenetics, and Therapeutic FrontiersView all 3 articles
Knowledge landscape of macrophage research in liver fibrosis: A bibliometric review of the literature from WoSCC
Provisionally accepted- 1Department of Infectious Diseases, Guang’anmen Hospital, China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China
- 2Shenzhen Baoan Pure Traditional Chinese Medicine Treatment Hospital, Shenzhen, China
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Recent insights into the immune response in fibrosis have provided valuable perspectives for the treatment of liver fibrosis. Macrophages, as the most abundant immune cells in the liver, are key drivers of liver fibrosis. They are extensively involved in tissue damage, chronic inflammation, and the progression and regression of liver fibrosis. This study aims to conduct a bibliometric analysis and literature review on the mechanisms by which macrophages contribute to liver fibrosis. Specifically, we analyzed a bibliometric dataset comprising 1,312 papers from 59 countries, 1,872 institutions, and 9,784 authors. Keyword co-occurrence analysis identified key research hotspots, including the role of macrophage subtypes in obesity-related metabolic disorders, the crosstalk between macrophages and hepatic stellate cells through mechanoimmunology, emerging strategies for immune modulation targeting macrophages to promote fibrosis regression and liver regeneration, and new discoveries regarding macrophage crosstalk with other immune cells. In conclusion, this study provides a visual analysis of the current research landscape, hotspots, and trends in the field of macrophages and liver fibrosis, and discusses future directions for further exploration in this area.
Keywords: liver fibrosis, Macrophages, Bibliometrics, visualization, Pharmacological mechanism
Received: 04 Mar 2025; Accepted: 16 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Cao, Lu, Lei and Lv. 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: Yanbo Li, Department of Infectious Diseases, Guang’anmen Hospital, China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.