Chou Yuyu, Nawabi Homaira, Li Jingze
Department of Ophthalmology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100730, China.
Grenoble Institut Neurosciences, Inserm, U1216, Grenoble Alpes University, Grenoble, France.
Inflamm Regen. 2022 Dec 7;42(1):60. doi: 10.1186/s41232-022-00244-4.
Axons play an essential role in the connection of the nervous system with the rest of the body. Axon lesions often lead to permanent impairment of motor and cognitive functions and the interaction with the outside world. Studies focusing on axon regeneration have become a research field with considerable interest. The purpose of this study is to obtain an overall perspective of the research field of axonal regeneration and to assist the researchers and the funding agencies to better know the areas of greatest research opportunities.
We conducted a bibliometric analysis and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) analysis of the global literature on axon regeneration based on the Web of Science (WoS) over the recent 22 years, to address the research hotspots, publication trends, and understudied areas.
A total of 21,018 articles were included, which in the recent two decades has increased by 125%. Among the top 12 hotspots, the annual productions rapidly increased in some topics, including axonal regeneration signaling pathway, axon guidance cues, neural circuits and functional recovery, nerve conduits, and cells transplant. Comparatively, the number of studies on axon regeneration inhibitors decreased. As for the topics focusing on nerve graft and transplantation, the annual number of papers tended to be relatively stable. Nevertheless, the underlying mechanisms of axon regrowth have not been completely uncovered. A lack of notable research on the epigenetic programs and noncoding RNAs regulation was observed. The significance of cell-type-specific data has been highlighted but with limited research working on that. Functional recovery from neuropathies also needs further studies.
The last two decades witnessed tremendous progress in the field of axon regeneration. There are still a lot of challenges to be tackled in translating these technologies into clinical practice.
轴突在神经系统与身体其他部位的连接中起着至关重要的作用。轴突损伤常导致运动和认知功能的永久性损害以及与外界的互动障碍。专注于轴突再生的研究已成为一个备受关注的研究领域。本研究的目的是全面了解轴突再生的研究领域，并协助研究人员和资助机构更好地了解最具研究机会的领域。
我们基于科学网（WoS）对最近22年全球轴突再生文献进行了文献计量分析和潜在狄利克雷分配（LDA）分析，以探讨研究热点、发表趋势和研究不足的领域。
共纳入21,018篇文章，在最近二十年中增加了125%。在12个顶级热点中，一些主题的年发表量迅速增加，包括轴突再生信号通路、轴突导向线索、神经回路与功能恢复、神经导管和细胞移植。相比之下，关于轴突再生抑制剂的研究数量减少。至于专注于神经移植的主题，每年的论文数量趋于相对稳定。然而，轴突再生的潜在机制尚未完全揭示。观察到对表观遗传程序和非编码RNA调控缺乏显著研究。细胞类型特异性数据的重要性已得到强调，但相关研究有限。神经病变的功能恢复也需要进一步研究。
过去二十年轴突再生领域取得了巨大进展。将这些技术转化为临床实践仍有许多挑战需要应对。
