Three-dimensional printing technology and bone tissue engineering research: Literature metrology and visual analysis of research hotspots / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: With the continuous development of three-dimensional (3D) printing technology and bone tissue engineering, more and more studies have applied 3D printing technology to bone tissue engineering, but the main research status, hot spots and development trend are not clear enough. OBJECTIVE: To explore the current research status, hotspots and development trends of this field through the literature metrology and visual analysis of research hotspots of 3D printing and bone tissue engineering. METHODS: The CNKI database was searched under the theme of “3D printing and bone tissue engineering research”. Based on the quantitative visual analysis method of CNKI literature, the author made a statistical analysis on the trend of the number of publications, publishing institutions and journals of the application of 3D printing technology in bone tissue engineering. VOSviewer software was used to analyze the author collaboration and keyword co-occurrence network of the literature, and the hot research topic was interpreted based on the literature. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: (1) A total of 469 effective articles related to 3D printing and bone tissue engineering were retrieved. Since 2014, the research on 3D printing and bone tissue engineering has shown a steady growth trend. Chinese Journal of Tissue Engineering Research and Jilin University are the most published journal and institution in this field, respectively. The authors of the literature form five major groups, but there is very little cooperation between the groups. (2) Keywords co-occurrence network shows that the contents revealed by keywords commonly clustering into four research topics (bone tissue engineering scaffold material, 3D printing technology and its application in orthopedics, 3D printing and joint replacement, and others) and the top 10 keywords (3D printing technology, computer aided technology, bone tissue engineering, tissue engineering, fracture, bone defect, hydroxyapatite, three-dimensional, replacement, titanium alloy) really reflect the present situation and the hotspots of current 3D printing and the bone tissue engineering research, which can provide a reference for researchers in this field when choosing a research direction.