Visual Analysis of Research Hotspots and Trends on Mitochondria-Associated Membranes in the Past 20 Years-Focused on Neurodegenerative Diseases.

The interaction between mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum is mediated by mitochondria-associated endoplasmic reticulum membranes (MAMs), which play a crucial role in regulating intracellular signal transduction and molecular interactions. This study employs bibliometric analysis to examine the research progress on MAMS and identify research hotspots and trends. A total of 1406 publications on MAMs were collected from the Web of Science Core Collection. Software such as CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and Scimago Graphica were utilized in the bibliometric analysis process. This study conducted a bibliometric analysis of over 20 years of MAM research, identifying the countries, institutions, authors, journals, and publications involved in the field. The number of publications on MAMs has been increasing annually since 2010, exhibiting a steady upward trend. The main contributors to this field are the USA, China, and Italy, with the journal Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology publishing the most publications. Common keywords include "endoplasmic reticulum stress," "Ca2 + ," "mitofusin2," "oxidative stress," "apoptosis," "autophagy," and "Alzheimer's disease." We found that the role of MAMs in neurodegenerative diseases has aroused great interest among researchers. The associations between calcium homeostasis, autophagy, mitochondrial dysfunction, and cell death with MAMs are also considered research hotspots and show broad research prospects. In addition, changes in MAM-resident proteins, including the mitochondria-ER tethering complex, Mfn2, and Sig-1R, have been highlighted as prominent research directions. The findings provide a comprehensive overview of research on MAMs and valuable insights for researchers, which is helpful for exploring future directions and trends in this field.