Description
Abstract Background: Tendinopathy is a disabling musculoskeletal disorder affecting the athletic and general populations. There have been increased studies using stem cells in treating tendon diseases. The aim of this bibliometric and visualized study is to comprehensively investigate the current status and global trends of research in stem cells for tendon. Methods: Publications related to stem cells for tendon from 1991 to 2020 were retrieved from Web of Science. The source data were studied and indexed using a bibliometric methodology. VOS viewer software was used to conduct for the visualized study, including bibliographic coupling, co-authorship, co-citation and co-occurrence analysis and to analyze the publication trends of research in stem cells for tendon. Results: In total, 2492 articles were included. Though the relative research interests decline since 2018, the number of publications increased annually worldwide. The United States made the largest contribution to this field, with the most publications, citations and the highest H-index. The most contributive institutions were University of Pittsburgh, Zhejiang University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Chinese University of Hong Kong. The Journal of Orthopaedic Research published the most relative articles. Studies could be classified into five clusters: “animal study”, “tissue engineering”, “clinical study”, “mechanism research” and “stem cells research”, which show a trend of balanced development in this field. Conclusions: The number of publications on stem cells in treating tendon diseases may have reached a platform based on current global trends. The United States made the largest contribution to this field. In addition, according to the inherent changes of hotspots in each cluster and the possibilities of cross-research, the research in stem cells for tendon may exist a balanced development trend.