Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Gut microbiota influences the brain via interactions with microglia. Dysregulation is linked to neurological diseases, but no bibliometric analysis on their relationship exists. METHODS: We conducted a bibliometric analysis of English articles/reviews from the Web of Science until December 2024, using VOSviewer and CiteSpace to assess trends, collaborations, and hotspots. RESULTS: Publications on gut microbiota and microglia have increased markedly since 2018. The three countries with the highest publication output were China, the United States, and Italy. The institutions with the most publications were Harvard Medical School, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Zhejiang University. The author with the highest number of publications was John F. Cryan, while the most cited author was Daniel Erny. The most cited article was "Host microbiota constantly control maturation and function of microglia in the CNS," published by Erny et al. in 2015 in Nature Neuroscience. The 10 most frequently occurring keywords were microglia, gut microbiota, neuroinflammation, inflammation, microbiota, brain, activation, gut - brain axis, chain fatty acids, and Alzheimer's disease. CONCLUSION: Research on gut microbiota and microglia is growing rapidly, with neuroinflammation, the gut-brain axis, and Alzheimer's disease as central hotspots, providing guidance for future studies.