Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and interleukins: a bibliometric analysis [1999-2025]

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a long-term lung condition, with limited therapeutic options and an overall poor prognosis. Accumulating evidence indicates that interleukins (ILs) are essential for the initiation and course of IPF, with certain IL signaling pathways contributing to disease pathogenesis while simultaneously emerging as potential therapeutic targets. This study aims to highlight the progress and current research priorities in the field of IPF and ILs, thereby laying the foundations for the development of targeted therapies for IPF.

In this study, research articles and clinical studies related to IPF and ILs were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC) and PubMed databases. Bibliometric and visual analyses were performed using CiteSpace 6.3.R3, VOSviewer 1.6.20, the R package bibliometrix, and SCImago Graphica to systematically characterize the research landscape and identify emerging hotspots in this field.

A total of 832 publications and 15 clinical studies were included. The results demonstrate a steadily increasing research interest in the IPF-IL field, with analyses of references and keywords highlighting disease mechanism elucidation and therapeutic strategy development as the dominant research themes. Keyword burst analysis further indicates sustained prominence of topics such as pirfenidone, diagnosis, and fibrosis, suggesting their relevance to current and near-future research directions.

Overall, this study constructs a structured knowledge map of the IPF-IL research landscape, identifies potential avenues for future investigation, and offers priority guidance for subsequent mechanistic validation, clinical stratification, and therapeutic efficacy prediction in IPF.