Mapping the knowledge structure and emerging trends of efferocytosis research: a bibliometric analysis

Background: Efferocytosis refers to the physiological clearance process of apoptotic cells by specialized and non-phagocytes and it is essential in human health and disease. However, there is a lack of comprehensive and objective reports on the current status of efferocytosis research. Here, we visually analyzed the hotspots and trending issues of efferocytosis research with bibliometric analysis. Methods: Relevant publications were obtained from the Web of Science Core Collection on February 18, 2022. We performed bibliometric and visual analysis using CiteSpace, VOSviewer, Microsoft Excel 2019, and the online Bibliometric platform. Results: A total of 1007 publica-tions on efferocytosis were retrieved. The number of efferocytosis studies increased rapidly from 2006 to 2021. The country that published the most efferocytosis related articles was the USA and the most productive institutions were Harvard University and Brigham and Women's Hospital. The most prolific and influential author was I. Tabas of Columbia University. Frontiers in Immunology published the most research papers on efferocytosis, the while Journal of Immunology had the highest co-citation frequency. The high-frequency keywords were "efferocytosis", "inflammation", "apoptotic cells", "macrophages", and "apoptosis". The analysis of keywords with the strongest citation bursts identified "cell" and "resolution" as emerging hotspots. Conclusion: Our results demonstrated that efferocytosis research increased steadily within the past decade. Current efferocytosis studies focus on three main aspects: mechanisms, basic biology, and potential role in disease. The research trends included the cellular players of the efferocytosis process and the role of efferocytosis in inflammation resolution. This bibliometric analysis pre-sented a comprehensive overview of efferocytosis research and provided valuable references and ideas for scholars interested in this field.