Background: Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common movement disorder in childhood, and its pathogenesis is complex, and cytokines have been shown to be involved in the pathological process of CP as key mediators, but the existing studies have been scattered and lack systematic summary. Objective: Reveal the research hotspots and cutting-edge trends of cytokines in the pathogenesis of CP. Methods: A systematic search was conducted in the Web of Science core database for relevant literature on the role of cytokines in the pathogenesis of CP. The CiteSpace and VOSviewer software were used to draw visual maps of authors, institutions, countries, and keywords. Results: A total of 39 countries, 420 institutions and 1323 authors were identified. The United States led in the number of published articles and was the core of international cooperation. However, the cooperation among authors and institutions was still relatively loose. A total of 1527 keywords were involved. The high-frequency keywords include “inflammation,” “periventricular leukomalacia,” “necrosis-factor-alpha,” etc. Cluster analysis divided the research into 4 categories: inflammation and immune response, perinatal injury, genetic regulation, and other potential associated factors. Emergent analysis shows that the research has gradually delved from basic factors such as early infection and birth weight to cytokine mechanisms and recent studies on inflammation and the child population. Conclusions: The research on cytokines in the pathogenesis of CP focuses on core areas such as inflammation and immune response, perinatal injury, etc. The research has gradually delved from basic factors to mechanisms and inflammation studies in the pediatric population. In the future, we can pay attention to the dynamic evolution and development trend of these hot areas, optimize research directions and methods in a timely manner, and actively build a multi-dimensional and integrated research system related to cytokines and CP, so as to provide new ideas and strategies for early prevention, targeted therapy and precision rehabilitation of CP.
Cao et al. (Fri,) studied this question.