Immune cells in metabolic associated fatty liver disease: Global trends and hotspots (2004-2024)

Figure 1 Flowchart of search strategy and selection process. MAFLD: Metabolic associated fatty liver disease.

Figure 2 Publication trends, collaboration and authorship contributions. A: Publication trend analysis chart; B: Study the national and regional documents and cooperation relationship map. USA: United State.

Figure 3 Distribution of authors and research institutions. As shown in the figure, the nodes are composed of circles and text labels, with different colors representing distinct clusters. The thickness of the lines between circles indicates the strength of collaboration between authors/institutions. A: A visual map for VOSviewer network among authors; B: A visual map for VOSviewer network among institutions.

Figure 4 Distribution of disciplines and journals. A: Field analysis chart. The VOSviewer software was used for visualization analysis, clustering the 1936 articles into five major fields; B: Dual-map overlay of journals. The figure is divided into two parts: The left side represents the citing journals, and the right side represents the cited journals. The more papers a journal publishes, the longer the vertical axis of the ellipse; the more authors involved, the longer the horizontal axis of the ellipse.

Figure 5 Co-citation clustering and citation burst analysis. A: Cluster analysis map of co-cited references. The parameters in CiteSpace were set as follows: Time slicing (2004-2024), one year per slice, and selection criterion (k = 4). The size of the superimposed rings (i.e., the cumulative size of the rings on the timeline) is proportional to the number of co-citations. Purple indicates relatively early citation years, while yellow indicates more recent citation years. Overlapping colors suggest that the article was cited in each corresponding year. Lines between circles represent co-citation relationships. Nodes marked in magenta are key nodes with centrality greater than 0.1; B: Citation burst analysis map. A citation burst refers to a significant increase in the number of citations a particular article receives within a specific time frame. The red areas in the graph indicate the periods during which the citations of each article surged.

Figure 6 Research hotspots and frontier analysis. A: Keyword timeline map; B: Keyword frequency cluster analysis chart; C: Hotspot keyword frequency cluster timeline analysis chart. NASH: Negatively regulates nonalcoholic steatohepatitis; NAFLD: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

Figure 7  Disease association cluster analysis map.

Figure 8 Cluster analysis of associated genes. A: Gene association cluster analysis map. This map visualizes the co-occurrence of genes related to immune cells and metabolic associated fatty liver disease. Different types of genes were classified by clustering algorithms and represented by four distinct colors: Inflammation-related genes are indicated in blue; chemokine-related genes in yellow; immune-related genes in green; and lipid metabolism-related genes in red; B: Gene Ontology enrichment analysis bubble chart. Bubble size denotes gene count, and color depth reflects enrichment level; C: Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analysis bubble chart. The x-axis shows the number of enriched genes, and the y-axis lists pathways; D: Protein-protein interaction network construction analysis map. Nodes represent proteins, and edges indicate interactions.