Operational Tolerance Research in Liver Transplantation: a Bibliometric Analysis Using a New Web Resource

Overview

Journal Front Res Metr Anal

Date 2024 Mar 29

PMID 38550796

Authors

Angel Esteban-Gil

Juan Jose Martinez-Garcia

Daniel Vidal-Correoso

Ana M Munoz-Morales

Pablo Ramirez

Jose Antonio Pons

Alberto Baroja-Mazo

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Operational tolerance in liver transplantation (OT-LT), defined as the graft survival with normal function in absence of immunosuppression, has been a field of intense research since the 1980s. Thereafter, tens of clinical trials and hundreds of articles have been published, making it challenging for researchers to assimilate all the information, more so outside of their disciplines. The aim of the present study was to analyze the research in OT-LT through a new web tool (https://tolerance.imib.es).

Methods: We have developed a web resource that allowed the identification of the present trends and potential research avenues in OL-LT, an overview biomedical terms that were most often cited, including which journals published the most articles, and an advanced search engine that exploited all the information in these publications.

Results: A total of 734 studies were analyzed until November 2023, with a mean of 15 articles published per year, a total sum of 3,751 impact factor points and a total of 26,542 citations. The analysis of citations allowed us to establish a ranking of the most prolific countries, authors, journals and institutions, in addition to the most influential publications in OT-LT. Likewise, keyword and co-occurrence analyses answered which themes involving OT-LT are the most popular, whereas cooperation analysis showed that principal authors in OT-LT form a network, although the lack of international cooperation, especially with regard to clinical trials, appears to be one of the main challenges.

Conclusion: Despite its limitations, our web tool will allow both OT-LT expert and novel researchers to be able to draw a comprehensive picture of the past, present and future of OT-LT research.

References

Baroja-Mazo A, Revilla-Nuin B, de Bejar A, Martinez-Alarcon L, Herrero J, El-Tayeb A . Extracellular adenosine reversibly inhibits the activation of human regulatory T cells and negatively influences the achievement of the operational tolerance in liver transplantation. Am J Transplant. 2018; 19(1):48-61. PMC: 6298591. DOI: 10.1111/ajt.15023. View

Baroja-Mazo A, Revilla-Nuin B, Ramirez P, Pons J . Immunosuppressive potency of mechanistic target of rapamycin inhibitors in solid-organ transplantation. World J Transplant. 2016; 6(1):183-92. PMC: 4801794. DOI: 10.5500/wjt.v6.i1.183. View

Legaz-Garcia M, Menarguez-Tortosa M, Fernandez-Breis J, Chute C, Tao C . Transformation of standardized clinical models based on OWL technologies: from CEM to OpenEHR archetypes. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2015; 22(3):536-44. PMC: 5566199. DOI: 10.1093/jamia/ocu027. View

Feng S, Ekong U, Lobritto S, Demetris A, Roberts J, Rosenthal P . Complete immunosuppression withdrawal and subsequent allograft function among pediatric recipients of parental living donor liver transplants. JAMA. 2012; 307(3):283-93. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2011.2014. View

Mastoridis S, Martinez-Llordella M, Sanchez-Fueyo A . Immunotolerance in Liver Transplantation. Semin Liver Dis. 2017; 37(2):95-108. DOI: 10.1055/s-0037-1602762. View

Novitzke J . The significance of clinical trials. J Vasc Interv Neurol. 2012; 1(1):31. PMC: 3317309. View

Kilminster S, Downes J, Gough B, Murdoch-Eaton D, Roberts T . Women in medicine--is there a problem? A literature review of the changing gender composition, structures and occupational cultures in medicine. Med Educ. 2007; 41(1):39-49. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2929.2006.02645.x. View

Sanchez-Fueyo A, Weber M, Domenig C, Strom T, Zheng X . Tracking the immunoregulatory mechanisms active during allograft tolerance. J Immunol. 2002; 168(5):2274-81. DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.168.5.2274. View

Sakaguchi S, Sakaguchi N, Asano M, Itoh M, Toda M . Immunologic self-tolerance maintained by activated T cells expressing IL-2 receptor alpha-chains (CD25). Breakdown of a single mechanism of self-tolerance causes various autoimmune diseases. J Immunol. 1995; 155(3):1151-64. View

10.

Wu H, Singer J, Kwan T, Loh Y, Wang C, Tan J . Gut Microbial Metabolites Induce Donor-Specific Tolerance of Kidney Allografts through Induction of T Regulatory Cells by Short-Chain Fatty Acids. J Am Soc Nephrol. 2020; 31(7):1445-1461. PMC: 7350991. DOI: 10.1681/ASN.2019080852. View

11.

Calne R, Sells R, Pena J, Davis D, Millard P, HERBERTSON B . Induction of immunological tolerance by porcine liver allografts. Nature. 1969; 223(5205):472-6. DOI: 10.1038/223472a0. View

12.

Houssin D, Gigou M, Franco D, Bismuth H, Charpentier B, Lang P . Specific transplantation tolerance induced by spontaneously tolerated liver allograft in inbred strains of rats. Transplantation. 1980; 29(5):418-9. DOI: 10.1097/00007890-198005000-00015. View

13.

Fernandez-Breis J, Maldonado J, Marcos M, Legaz-Garcia M, Moner D, Torres-Sospedra J . Leveraging electronic healthcare record standards and semantic web technologies for the identification of patient cohorts. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2013; 20(e2):e288-96. PMC: 3861938. DOI: 10.1136/amiajnl-2013-001923. View

14.

Bryda E . The Mighty Mouse: the impact of rodents on advances in biomedical research. Mo Med. 2013; 110(3):207-11. PMC: 3987984. View

15.

Di Maira T, Little E, Berenguer M . Immunosuppression in liver transplant. Best Pract Res Clin Gastroenterol. 2020; 46-47:101681. DOI: 10.1016/j.bpg.2020.101681. View

16.

Federhen S . The NCBI Taxonomy database. Nucleic Acids Res. 2011; 40(Database issue):D136-43. PMC: 3245000. DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkr1178. View

17.

Wieers G, Gras J, Bourdeaux C, Truong D, Latinne D, Reding R . Monitoring tolerance after human liver transplantation. Transpl Immunol. 2007; 17(2):83-93. DOI: 10.1016/j.trim.2006.09.020. View

18.

Adams D, Sanchez-Fueyo A, Samuel D . From immunosuppression to tolerance. J Hepatol. 2015; 62(1 Suppl):S170-85. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhep.2015.02.042. View

19.

Mohanakumar T, Rhodes C, Flye M, Lee H . Antiidiotypic antibodies to human major histocompatibility complex class I and II antibodies in hepatic transplantation and their role in allograft survival. Transplantation. 1987; 44(1):54-8. DOI: 10.1097/00007890-198707000-00013. View

20.

Pons J, Yelamos J, Ramirez P, Oliver-Bonet M, Sanchez A, Rodriguez-Gago M . Endothelial cell chimerism does not influence allograft tolerance in liver transplant patients after withdrawal of immunosuppression. Transplantation. 2003; 75(7):1045-7. DOI: 10.1097/01.TP.0000058472.71775.7D. View