A Bibliometric Analysis of Exosomes Therapy in the Treatment of Osteoarthritis from 2012 to 2022

PURPOSE: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common clinical disease characterized by the destruction of articular cartilage, subchondral ossification, cystic degeneration and osteophyte formation. Recently, more and more scholars draw attention to exosomes in the field of OA, and exciting breakthroughs have been achieved in recent years. However, bibliometric analysis of the literature in this research field is lacking. Considering its potential in treatment of OA, this article aimed to analyze the research status and identify future hotspots of exosomes in osteoarthritis in recent 10 years by bibliometrics tools. METHODS: Relevant publications in this field from 2012 to 2022 was retrieved from the Web of Science core collection database (WOSSCC). And we used Vosviewers, CiteSpace, an online analysis platform and the R package “Bibliometrix” for bibliometric analysis. RESULTS: A total of 484 publications (including 319 articles and 165 reviews) from 51 countries, 720 institutions, were included in this study. IRCCS Ist Ortoped Galeazzi, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Sun Yat-sen University are the leading research institutions in this field. International Journal of Molecular Sciences contributed the largest number of articles, and Osteoarthritis and Cartilage is the most co-cited journal. Of the 2664 scholars who participated in the study, Ragni E, De Girolamo L, Orfei CP, and Colombini A had the largest number of articles. Zhang, SP is the most co-cited author. “Mesenchymal stem cell”, “biomaterials”, “Inflammation” and “regenerative medicine” are the keywords in the research. CONCLUSION: This is the first bibliometric analysis of exosomes in osteoarthritis. We explored current research status in recent years and identified frontiers and hot spots in this research field. We highlight the significant roles of mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes (MSC-Exos) in the treatment of osteoarthritis, and identified exosomal biomaterials as frontier in this research domain, which can provide reference for the researchers who focus on this research field.