Muscle Organoids and Organs-on-Chips: A 15-Year Global Bibliometric Perspective.

Abstract

Muscle organoids and Organs-on-Chips (OoCs) have emerged as advanced strategies in regenerative medicine and preclinical investigation for muscular diseases. Here, we aim to conduct a comprehensive bibliometric analysis to reveal the global research trends and their evolution in these fields. We retrieved studies on muscle organoids and OoCs published between 2010 and 2025 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC), Scopus, and PubMed databases. Quantitative mapping of publication trends, academic impact, and research hotspots was conducted using R-bibliometrix, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace. A total of 2,083 articles (cardiac, n = 990; smooth, n = 921; and skeletal, n = 261, subgroups are nonexclusive categories) were included. Global publications have expanded rapidly since 2016, achieving an average annual growth rate of 26.0% and peaking in 2025. The United States and China emerged as leading countries in both publication and citation numbers, and Harvard University took the lead among different institutions. Thematic analysis revealed a developmental trajectory evolving from fundamental material engineering (e.g., biosensors) toward functional validation (e.g., drug screening) and sophisticated microenvironment reconstruction (e.g., vascularization and barrier functions). Furthermore, multidimensional metrics suggested a synchronized pattern of academic impact and developmental focus across all three muscle types. This bibliometric analysis reveals a thematic evolution in research priorities, moving beyond generic microfluidic design to addressing systemic tissue engineering bottlenecks, specifically perfusable vascularization, neuromuscular innervation, and multilineage maturation. These findings offer a bibliometric overview that can inform future efforts toward platform standardization, high-throughput screening, and clinical translation for muscular diseases.