Mapping Themes Trends and Knowledge Structure of Trophoblastic Invasion, a Bibliometric Analysis from 2012-2021

Objectives: Trophoblastic invasion at the maternal-fetal interface can affect pregnancy outcomes. To describe an intuitive theme trends and knowledge structure of trophoblastic invasion-related literature from a bibliometric perspective, and provide researchers with new research hotspots.

Study Design: The literature form PubMed database related to trophoblastic invasion from January 1, 2012 to April 30, 2021 were extracted, and then biclustering analysis, co-word analysis, strategy diagram and social network analysis were performed to provide immature, or newly emerging research hotspots for researchers.

Results: A total of 96 high-frequency medical subjects heading terms were extracted and classified into 6 clusters. Themes in the first and second quadrant of strategy diagram, including trophoblasts metabolism, placenta metabolism, pre-eclampsia, etc., as the mature parts of the research on trophoblastic invasion have been well developed. On the other hand, themes in the third and fourth quadrants of strategy diagram, such as embryo implantation and trophoblasts immunology, pregnancy complication, matrix metalloproteinase and trophoblasts metabolism, habitual abortion and trophoblasts metabolism, etc., are immature themes. Social network analysis suggests that themes at the edge, such as habitual abortion / metabolism, placenta / immunology, natural killer cells / physiology, natural killer cells / immunology, embryo implantation / immunology, are considered new research hotspots and have considerable research space.

Conclusion: By analyzing the research hotspots related to trophoblastic invasion, immature themes and emerging hotspots deserve more attention and can be considered as hints when launching new research projects.