Research Trends in Neutrophil Extracellular Traps and Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury: A Dual-Database Bibliometric Analysis from 2013 to 2025.

INTRODUCTION

Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), defined as DNA-protein complexes released upon neutrophil activation, have been increasingly recognized as pivotal mediators in the initiation and perpetuation of ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) in recent scholarly investigations. Despite the increasing number of related studies, there is no bibliometric analysis in this field. This study aims to analyze the development trend, research status, and hotspots of NETs and IRI, thereby providing a comprehensive and intuitive academic reference for investigators in this field.

METHODS

The Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database and Scopus database were used to search the literature in the field of NETs and IRI from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2025. Using bibliometric software such as CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and the bibliometrix R-package, was used to conduct co-occurrence analysis, cluster analysis and emergence analysis were conducted on the annual number of publications, countries/regions, institutions, authors, journals and keywords.

RESULTS

This is the first bibliometric analysis systematically characterizing the landscape of NETs-mediated IRI research. After screening, 224 articles were used in the bibliometric analysis. These articles were from 449 institutions in 30 countries, written by 1642 authors, published in 141 journals, and cited 10326 times in total based on the merged dataset. The number of annual publications in this field is steadily but rapidly growing, with the United States, China, and Germany leading the way in research. Frontiers In Immunology was the journal with the most publications. Samer Tohme from the University of Pittsburgh (USA) contributed the most. Volker Brinkmann from the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology was the most co-cited author. Liver IRI and myocardial IRI related to NETs are hot topics in this field. Keyword emergence analysis indicates a trend in which the research frontier has evolved from observation of phenomena towards mechanism exploration and clinical translation.

CONCLUSION

The research on NETs and IRI is in a period of rapid development. Current studies have systematically elucidated the multiple pathogenic effects of NETs and IRI, and formed a research framework with "molecular mechanism-organ injury-inflammation regulation-intervention strategy" as the core. Bibliometric trends suggest that future research directions are likely to increasingly focus on the development of high-specificity inhibitors and clinical translational initiatives, as reflected by the increasing frequency of these topics in recent publications.