Application of metabolomics in hypertension research: A bibliometric study and literature review

Cardiovascular disease has always been the leading cause of death in the global population. Hypertension (HTN) is widely recognized as one of the most critical risk factors for severe cardiovascular disease. In recent years, an increasing number of studies have found that omics research is needed to identify alternative/orthogonal biomarkers in order to gain new insights into disease mechanisms. Metabolomics has undeniable contributions and prospects in HTN research. Therefore, exploring the key research areas and potential interaction mechanisms between metabolomics and HTN has become increasingly important.

Use the Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC) to search for literature related to HTN and metabolomics from 2005 to 2024. The bibliometric tools used in this study include CiteSpace 6.3.R1 (CiteSpace) and VOSviewer 1.6.20 (VOSviewer).

A total of 1211 articles were included from 2005 to 2024. In the past 20 years, the number of publications and citations in this field has continued to increase. These articles involve 73 countries (regions), 2085 institutions, and 8255 authors. These articles have been published in 479 journals, with 117 references appearing more than 15 times. The increasing number of studies in this field indicates that it remains a research hotspot. We expect that this field will continue to receive attention in the future. The United States and China lead in the number of published articles, while England has the widest international cooperation, indicating its continued prominent position as a research center in this field. Among them, the papers published by D'Alessandro Angelo, Li Yunlun, Coresh Josef, and others have the highest publication volume. Publications in this field often appear in omics, nutrition, cardiovascular and molecular biology. The most common keywords include Metabolomics, Hypertension, Biomarkers, Metabolism, Oxidative stress, Inflammation, and Insulin resistance.

The relationship between metabolomics and HTN is receiving widespread attention. The application of gut microbiota, molecular docking, and untargeted metabolomics in HTN is a key research direction in the future. Antioxidant activity, genetics, validation, mass spectrometry, management, and accumulation are at the forefront of knowledge in this field.