Emerging trends in the blood spinal-cord barrier: A bibliometric analysis

The blood-spinal cord barrier (BSCB) is a unique protective barrier located between the circulatory system and the central nervous system. BSCB plays a vital role in various diseases. However, there is little systematic research and recording in this field by bibliometrics analysis. We aim to visualize this field through bibliometrics to analyze the hotspots and trends of BSCB and in order to facilitate an understanding of future developments in basic and clinical research.

To conduct a bibliometric study of original publications and their references, the keywords Blood Spinal-Cord Barrier and BSCB are searched and filtered from the Web of Science database (2000-2022), focusing on citations, authors, journals, and countries/regions. Additionally, clustering of the references and co-citation analysis was completed, including a total of 1926 articles and comments.

From the results, 193 authors were identified, among which Sharma Hs played a key role. As far as the analysis result of the clustering of the references is concerned, the most common type in cluster analysis is spinal cord injury (SCI) which is a current and developing research field. The keywords are also the specific content under these clusters. The most influential organization is Univ Calif San Francisco, and "Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences of The United States of America" magazine is the most cited magazine.

The research on BSCB is booming focusing mainly on "BSCB in SCI" including "activation," "pathway," and "drug delivery" which is also the trend of future research.