[Visual analysis of exosomes in traditional Chinese medicine research and application status based on CiteSpace knowledge map]

Abstract

In this study, CiteSpace was used to conduct bibliometric statistics and visualization of the research papers on the exosomes in traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) and application status in CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, and Web of Science. The authors, research institutions, and keywords of the relevant papers were analyzed to summarize the research status, hotspots, and development trends of TCM application of exosomes, thereby providing references for future research. A total of 340 Chinese papers and 9 English papers were included. In Chinese papers, GUO Hai-dong is the author with the largest amount of research papers, and his research interest is the mechanism of electroacupuncture in promoting functional recovery after sciatic nerve injury by regulating the release of exosomes. Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine is the research institution with the largest amount of papers, followed by Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine and Hunan University of Chinese Medicine. There was less cooperation among these research institutions, and cooperation between teams and agencies should be strengthened. The overall volume of publications in English was comparatively small, and the connections between the authors were weak. The publishing organizations were mostly distributed in medical schools, hospitals, comprehensive universities, and the cooperation between institutions was scattered. The main keywords in Chinese papers include microRNA, mesenchymal stem cells, bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells, mechanism of action, and extracellular vesicles. The research of exosomes in TCM is increasing in recent years. The research hotspot is that exosomes can both serve as biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of certain diseases in TCM and drug carriers of Chinese medicine for targeted treatment of diseases. Keyword prominence suggested that exosomes derived from osteoblasts and macrophages in the treatment of diseases might still be a future research trend.

Keywords: CiteSpace; bibliometrics; exosomes; traditional Chinese medicine; visual analysis.