Global research trends in programmed cell death in rheumatoid arthritis from 2001 to 2025: a bibliometric analysis

Programmed cell death (PCD) has become an important framework for understanding the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but the overall research landscape, intellectual base, and evolving hotspots in this field remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate the global trends, knowledge structure, thematic evolution, and disciplinary diffusion of PCD research in RA through bibliometric analysis.

Publications on PCD in RA from 2001 to 2025 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection and PubMed. After merging, deduplication, and screening, 3, 168 English-language articles and reviews were included. Bibliometric analyses were performed using Bibliometrix and VOSviewer, with sensitivity analyses conducted to assess the robustness of the main network findings. Annual publication trends, contributions of countries, institutions, authors, and journals, collaboration networks, reference co-citation, author keyword co-occurrence, temporal keyword characteristics, journal bibliographic coupling, and dual-map overlay were analyzed.

A total of 3, 168 publications were identified, and annual publication output showed a clear upward trend, with a notable increase during the later years of the study period. China, the United States, and Japan were the leading contributing countries. Anhui Medical University was the most productive institution, and Zhang Y was the most productive author. Reference co-citation analysis identified six major clusters, showing that the intellectual base of the field remains rooted in classical RA pathogenesis while expanding toward emerging PCD-related mechanisms. Author keyword analysis revealed five major thematic domains. Temporal analysis showed that apoptosis- and fibroblast-like-synoviocyte-related studies remained persistent core topics, whereas pyroptosis, ferroptosis, oxidative stress, and reactive oxygen species gained increasing prominence in recent years. Source and dual-map overlay analyses further indicated that this field mainly spans rheumatology, immunology, molecular biology, and clinical medicine.

Research on PCD in RA has expanded continuously and evolved from an apoptosis-centered framework toward a broader and more differentiated mechanistic landscape. These findings provide a systematic reference for future mechanistic and translational research, while the roles of emerging PCD pathways require further disease-specific validation.