Advancing the understanding of alveolar regeneration: Global research trends, thematic evolution, and emerging...

Alveolar regeneration represents a critical research direction in respiratory disease treatment. Despite the surge in studies following the COVID-19 pandemic, comprehensive bibliometric analysis to systematically evaluate global research trends and future directions remains lacking.

This study employed bibliometric methodology to analyze 1564 publications related to alveolar regeneration from 1974 to 2024 using the Web of Science Core Collection database. Data visualization and analysis were conducted using VOSviewer (version 1.6.19), CiteSpace (version 6.2.R3), and the biblioshiny R package.

The analysis encompassed 68 countries, 1930 institutions, and 9150 researchers across 658 journals. The United States leads with 601 publications and 32,172 citations, with Harvard University as the most influential institution. The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine has the highest impact factor (19.3), while the American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology has the most co-citations (2,402). Edward E. Morrisey is the most prolific author, and C. E. Barkauskas has the highest co-citations. Keyword analysis revealed six major research clusters: stem cells and regenerative medicine, acute lung injury and fibrosis, COVID-19-related research, chronic lung disease repair, cellular behavior and molecular mechanisms, and post-pneumonectomy regeneration. Thematic mapping indicates future research should prioritize lung injury repair mechanisms, matrix environment in tissue regeneration, stem cell therapeutics, and immune regulation in lung injury repair.

This first comprehensive 50-year bibliometric analysis of alveolar regeneration reveals the evolutionary trend from basic mechanistic exploration toward clinical translational applications, providing important reference for researchers and funding agencies.