The Traditional Chinese Medicine in Treating Diabetic Nephropathy: A Bibliometric Analysis

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is one of the most common complications of diabetes mellitus, causing a serious economic burden worldwide. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is playing an increasingly important role in the treatment of DN. The purpose of this study was to comprehend the main themes and developments in relevant research throughout the last 11 years.

We looked for publications in the Web of Science Core Collection database (WOS) and the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) between 2013 and 2024. CiteSpace 6.3.R1 software was used to analyze the co-authorship of countries/regions, organizations, and co-occurrence of keywords. In addition, burst detection was applied to predict research hotspots and future trends.

A total of 530 articles were included. The overall trend of published articles is increasing. China is the country with the highest number of publications and the highest impact. The research institutions are relatively scattered, with Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine having the highest number of publications. The cooperation among institutions is mainly between universities of traditional Chinese medicine and their affiliated hospitals, and the cross-regional cooperation is not common. The research hotspots are the efficacy of TCM on DN and its mechanism of action, the exploration of TCM and formulas related to the treatment of DN, and the identification and typing of DN in TCM. The research frontiers lie in the control of oxidative stress and the effects of TCM on gut microbiota. In addition, the use of network pharmacology to explore the targets of Chinese herbal formulas for the treatment of this disease has also become popular.

TCM provides more possibilities for the treatment of DN. Researchers can refer to the research hotspots and trends in this paper for future research direction, on the one hand, they can focus on the study of the clinical efficacy of TCM and its improvement of renal function, on the other hand, they can also start from the pharmacological mechanism of TCM for the treatment of DN. Among them, improving oxidative stress in human body and regulating gut microbiota are the directions that can be studied.