Chen Jing, Chen Songfeng, Zhuang Qianjun, Chen Fangfei, Tan Niandi, Xiao Yinglian
Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Transl Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2025 Apr 11;10:29. doi: 10.21037/tgh-24-84. eCollection 2025.
Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) presents a complex pathophysiological challenge with intricate interactions among its biological components, yet the mechanisms remain incompletely understood. This study aimed to conduct a quantitative analysis to investigate the concentration and evolution of domain knowledge in GERD research.
A bibliographic search in PubMed retrieved 18,459 abstracts of experimental studies on GERD, published between 1963 and 2022. Abstracts were scanned automatically for 477 biological components proposed in recent publications, which are represented by a set of (I) genes and molecules (n=180), (II) definition of cytology, histology, and anatomy (n=54), (III) clinical definition (n=243). For each component, semantic synonyms were recovered from catalogues and domain knowledge. The results are visualized as networks indicating the frequency at which different components are referenced together within each abstract.
Over time the GERD network has seen a progression in the increasing of new components and connectivity. The clinical definition appears to be the most abundant, while studies exploring micro-level mechanisms remain notably scarce. Meanwhile, certain pivotal components consistently attract significant attention, forming crucial elements in this multifactorial disease. However, the micro-level analysis reveals a recent plateau in progress, indicating a bottleneck phase currently.
GERD domain knowledge has remained confined within established frameworks over history, highlighting the importance of developing novel integrated research paradigms among endless data to bridge the gap between bench and bedside.
胃食管反流病（GERD）呈现出复杂的病理生理挑战，其生物学成分之间存在错综复杂的相互作用，但其机制仍未完全了解。本研究旨在进行定量分析，以调查GERD研究中领域知识的集中程度和演变情况。
在PubMed中进行文献检索，检索出1963年至2022年间发表的18459篇关于GERD的实验研究摘要。摘要被自动扫描，以查找近期出版物中提出的477种生物学成分，这些成分由一组（I）基因和分子（n = 180）、（II）细胞学、组织学和解剖学定义（n = 54）、（III）临床定义（n = 243）表示。对于每个成分，从目录和领域知识中检索语义同义词。结果以网络形式可视化，表明每个摘要中不同成分共同被引用的频率。
随着时间的推移，GERD网络中出现了新成分增加和连接性增强的进展。临床定义似乎最为丰富，而探索微观层面机制的研究仍然明显稀缺。同时，某些关键成分一直吸引着大量关注，成为这种多因素疾病的关键要素。然而，微观层面的分析显示最近进展出现了停滞，表明目前处于瓶颈阶段。
GERD领域知识在历史上一直局限于既定框架内，这凸显了在无尽的数据中开发新颖的综合研究范式以弥合实验室与临床之间差距的重要性。
