Immunological factors in cirrhosis diseases from a bibliometric point of view

BACKGROUND Cirrhosis results from persistent liver injury that leads to liver fibrosis.Immunological factors play important regulatory roles in the development and progression of cirrhosis.Bibliometrics is one of the most commonly used methods for systematic evaluation of a field of study.To date,there are no bibliometric studies on the role of immunological factors in cirrhosis.AIM To provide a comprehensive overview of the knowledge structure and research hotspots of immunological factors in cirrhosis.METHODS We retrieved publications related to immunological factors in cirrhosis between 2003 to 2022 from the Web of Science Core Collection database on December 7,2022.The search strategy was TS=((Liver Cirrhosis OR hepatic cirrhosis OR liver fibrosis)AND(Immunologic*Factor*OR Immune Factor*OR Immunomodulator*OR Biological Response Modifier*OR Biomodulator*)).Only original articles and reviews were included.A total of 2873 publications were analyzed using indicators of publication and citation metrics,countries,institutes,authors,journals,references,and keywords by CiteSpace and VOSviewer.RESULTS A total of 5104 authors from 1173 institutions across 51 countries published 2873 papers on cirrhosis and immunological factors in 281 journals.In the past 20 years,the increasing number of related annual publications and citations indicates that research on immunological factors in cirrhosis has become the focus of attention and has entered a period of accelerated development.The United States(781/27.18%),China(538/18.73%),and Germany(300/10.44%)were the leading countries in this field.Most of the top 10 authors were from the United States(4)and Germany(3),with Gershwin ME contributing the most related articles(42).World Journal of Gastroenterology was the most productive journal,whereas Hepatology was the most co-cited journal.Current research hotspots regarding immunological factors in cirrhosis include fibrosis,cirrhosis,inflammation,liver fibrosis,expression,hepatocellular carcinoma,activation,primary biliary cirrhosis,disease,and hepatic stellate cells.Burst keywords(e.g.,epidemiology,gut microbiota,and pathways)represent research frontiers that have attracted the interest of researchers in recent years.CONCLUSION This bibliometric study comprehensively summarizes the research developments and directions of immunological factors in cirrhosis,providing new ideas for promoting scientific research and clinical applications.

Liver tumor infiltrating lymphocytes: Comparison of hepatocellular and cholangiolar carcinoma

AIM: To investigate the role of tumor inf iltrating lym-phocytes (TIL) in primary hepatocellular and cholangio-lar carcinomas of the liver.METHODS: Immunohistochemical analysis was per-formed including antibodies to CD3, CD4, CD8, CD20, CD56 and TIA-1 in formalin-f ixed and paraff in-embed-ded tissue of 35 liver resection specimens of hepatocel-lular or cholangiocellular carcinomas. Semiquantitative evaluation was performed with emphasis on the area of the tumor itself and of the tumor/liver interface.RESULTS: All hepatocellular carcinomas showed in-filtration of lymphocytes predominantly around the tumor in the tumor/liver interface consisting mainly of CD3+ CD4+ T lymphocytes [164.3/10 high power f ields (HPF)] and in the tumor itself of CD8+ cells (54.9/10 HPF). Cholangiocarcinomas contained a heterogeneous amount of TIL, composed mainly of CD3+ T cells with a predominance of CD8+ cells in the tumor tissue (52.6/10 HPF) and of CD4+ cells in the interface region (223.1/10 HPF). CD56+ cells of the innate immune system were scarce. There was no significant difference between hepatocellular or cholangiolar carcinoma. No correlation with the clinicopathological data was seen. CONCLUSION: Liver TIL consists of intratumoral CD8+ T cells and peritumoral CD4+ T cells indepen-dent of histogenetic origin. Different functions of lym-phocytes in these regions seem possible.

THE MUTUAL BENEFIT ROLE OF LIVER AND PANCREAS IN COMBINED TRANSPLANTATION

The present study observed the mutual benefit role of liver and pancreas in combined hepaticopan-creatic transplantation in rats. The results indicated that pancreas, when transplanted with liver, could survive for a significant long time (13. 4±1.01 days) than it transplanted alone (9. 2±1.14 days) (P< 0. 05, t test). The interstitial rejection was mild and its rejection grade was significantly different from that of pancreas transplanted alone (P<0. 05, X2 test). The liver, when transplanted with pancreas, regenerated with strong competence and contact structure morphologically compared with liver transplanted alone. We think that pancreas could be immunologically protected against rejection and liver can be nutri-tionalized by pancreas in combined liver and pancreas transplantation.