Mesenchymal stem cells and knee osteoarthritis: A bibliometric analysis

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are characterized by self-renewal and multidirectional differentiation, indicating that they have great application prospects in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis (KOA). The purpose of this study was to explore the research status, hot spots and future research trends of the use of MSCs in KOA treatment and to provide a basis for research directions and applications in this field.

We searched the Web of Science Core Collection database from 2012 to 2022 to identify literature related to the use of MSCs for the treatment of KOA. All the included studies were subjected to bibliometric analysis via Hiplot Pro and CiteSpace software to produce statistics and visual analyses of data, including the nation, institution, author, keyword and reference.

A total of 1537 studies were analyzed. These studies had been cited 41,916 times. The 3 countries with the greatest number of published papers were the USA (415), China (374), and Italy (130). Two U.S.-based institutions, i.e., Hospital for Special Surgery and Rush University, had the greatest number of published papers. The representative journals in this field were Stem Cells, Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, Osteoarthritis and Cartage and the American Journal of Sports Medicine. Keyword co-occurrence and co-citation reference analyses revealed that the key research theme in this field in the past decade has been the efficacy and mechanism of MSCs for treating KOA (articular cartilage). These findings preliminarily confirmed the clinical value of MSCs for treating KOA.

The use of MSCs to treat KOA has great potential for clinical application and has been widely studied by researchers. The clinical efficacy and mechanism of action of MSCs are still the core content. In KOA treatment, adipose-derived MSCs, MSC-derived exosomes and the risk of MSC application are future research areas.