Research trends of ferroptosis and pyroptosis in depression: A bibliometric analysis

Table 1 Top 10 countries with the most publications on ferroptosis and pyroptosis in depression

Type	Rank	Country	Documents	Citations	Total link strength
Ferroptosis in depression	1	China	139	3157	21
	2	United States	12	722	14
	3	Germany	3	144	1
	4	Australia	2	6	7
	5	South Korea	2	18	2
	6	Malaysia	2	41	1
	7	Egypt	2	10	0
	8	Brazil	1	6	6
	9	Bulgaria	1	6	6
	10	Cameroon	1	6	6
Pyroptosis in depression	1	China	579	20211	58
	2	United States	96	11770	74
	3	Italy	30	4106	27
	4	India	28	533	12
	5	Canada	25	1455	21
	6	Brazil	25	1188	13
	7	England	22	1064	30
	8	Australia	20	1320	25
	9	Germany	20	1364	17
	10	Spain	19	1145	20

Table 2 Top 10 institutions related to ferroptosis and pyroptosis in depression

Type	Rank	Institution	Documents	Citations	Total link strength
Ferroptosis in depression	1	Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine	7	69	22
	2	Nanchang University	6	87	8
	3	Harbin Medical University	6	61	0
	4	Jinan University	5	128	15
	5	Henan University of Chinese Medicine	5	37	10
	6	Soochow University	5	230	9
	7	Beijing University of Chinese Medicine	5	131	8
	8	Zhengzhou University	4	41	9
	9	Kunming Medical University	4	777	8
	10	Gannan Medical University	4	48	7
Pyroptosis in depression	1	Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine	26	2212	18
	2	Beijing University of Chinese Medicine	25	458	25
	3	Huazhong University of Science and Technology	23	932	19
	4	Fudan University	21	1308	15
	5	Nanjing Medical University	17	1109	19
	6	China Pharmaceutical University	17	1825	8
	7	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	16	693	23
	8	Capital Medical University	16	678	13
	9	Chongqing Medical University	16	903	5
	10	Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine	15	313	19

Table 3 Top 10 authors and co-cited authors related to ferroptosis and pyroptosis in depression

Type	Rank	Author	Documents	Citations	Total link strength	Co-cited author	Citations
Ferroptosis in depression	1	Luo Qiang	5	53	29	Dixon SJ	73
	2	Ren Peng	4	48	28	Wang Y	58
	3	Zhao Yulong	4	48	28	Stockwell BR	43
	4	Zhou Junjie	4	48	28	Yang WS	37
	5	Zhao Xiujuan	4	51	20	Chen X	35
	6	Wang Jing	4	38	13	Jiao HY	34
	7	Li Xue	3	13	24	Dang RZ	34
	8	Wu Xiaoyun	3	13	24	Li J	33
	9	Yao Ranqi	3	51	20	Doll S	30
	10	Yu Ziran	3	51	20	Cao H	29
Pyroptosis in depression	1	Zhang Yi	16	976	22	Alcocer-Gomez E	385
	2	Jiang Chunlei	11	937	28	Zhang Y	338
	3	Jiang Pei	10	602	4	Maes M	239
	4	Wang Wei	9	368	10	Iwata M	203
	5	Hu Gang	9	1333	8	Pan Y	189
	6	Lu Ming	8	882	8	Miller AH	188
	7	Su Wenjun	7	524	20	Kaufmann FN	134
	8	Yu Jin	7	883	8	Willner P	123
	9	Xiao Ling	7	207	5	Li Y	107
	10	Yang Yang	7	138	3	Liu Y	103

Table 4 Top 10 journals and co-cited journals related to ferroptosis and pyroptosis in depression

Type	Rank	Journal	Frequency	Citations	IF (2025)	JCR	Co-cited journal	Citations	IF (2025)	JCR
Ferroptosis in depression	1	International Journal of Molecular Sciences	9	346	4.9	Q1	International Journal of Molecular Sciences	242	4.9	Q1
	2	Phytomedicine	6	67	8.3	Q1	Frontiers in Pharmacology	190	4.7	Q1
	3	Journal of Ethnopharmacology	5	184	5.4	Q1	Cell	187	42.5	Q1
	4	Free Radical Biology and Medicine	5	28	8.2	Q1	Journal of Neuroinflammation	167	10.1	Q1
	5	Frontiers in Neuroscience	4	48	3.2	Q2	Free Radical Biology and Medicine	165	8.2	Q1
	6	Molecular Neurobiology	4	61	4.3	Q2	Journal of Ethnopharmacology	160	5.4	Q1
	7	Antioxidants	4	254	6.6	Q1	Redox Biology	148	11.9	Q1
	8	Redox Biology	4	199	11.9	Q1	Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy	139	7.5	Q1
	9	Frontiers in Immunology	4	395	5.9	Q1	Molecular Neurobiology	139	4.3	Q2
	10	Behavioural Brain Research	3	72	2.3	Q2	Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity	136	6.1	Q1
Pyroptosis in depression	1	International Immunopharmacology	43	1152	4.7	Q1	Brain, Behavior, and Immunity	2174	7.6	Q1
	2	Brain, Behavior, and Immunity	27	2987	7.6	Q1	Journal of Neuroinflammation	1471	10.1	Q1
	3	International Journal of Molecular Sciences	27	1101	4.9	Q1	Molecular Psychiatry	1069	10.1	Q1
	4	Frontiers in Pharmacology	26	654	4.7	Q1	International Journal of Molecular Sciences	998	4.9	Q1
	5	Journal of Neuroinflammation	22	2999	10.1	Q1	Nature	932	49.5	Q1
	6	Behavioural Brain Research	17	745	2.3	Q2	Biological Psychiatry	879	9.0	Q1
	7	Molecular Neurobiology	17	546	4.3	Q2	Behavioural Brain Research	853	2.3	Q2
	8	Phytomedicine	14	190	8.3	Q1	Journal of Neuroscience	803	4.8	Q1
	9	Frontiers in Immunology	14	543	5.9	Q1	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America	785	13.1	Q1
	10	Scientific Reports	12	403	4.9	Q1	Frontiers in Pharmacology	706	4.7	Q1

IF: Impact factor; JCR: Journal Citation Reports.

Table 5 Top 10 co-cited references associated with ferroptosis and pyroptosis in depression

Type	Rank	Reference	Citations	Title	DOI	Source
Ferroptosis in depression	1	Dixon SJ (2012)	61	Ferroptosis: An iron-dependent form of nonapoptotic cell death	10.1016/j.cell.2012.03.042	Cell
	2	Jiao H (2021)	34	Traditional Chinese formula Xiaoyaosan alleviates depressive-like behavior in CUMS mice by regulating PEBP1-GPX4-mediated ferroptosis in the hippocampus	10.2147/NDT.S302443	Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment
	3	Dang R (2022)	34	Edaravone ameliorates depressive and anxiety-like behaviors via Sirt1/Nrf2/HO-1/Gpx4 pathway	10.1186/s12974-022-02400-6	Journal of Neuroinflammation
	4	Stockwell BR (2017)	26	Ferroptosis: A regulated cell death nexus linking metabolism, redox biology, and disease	10.1016/j.cell.2017.09.021	Cell
	5	Cao H (2021)	25	Hippocampal proteomic analysis reveals activation of necroptosis and ferroptosis in a mouse model of chronic unpredictable mild stress-induced depression	10.1016/j.bbr.2021.113261	Behavioural Brain Research
	6	Jiang X (2021)	23	Ferroptosis: Mechanisms, biology and role in disease	10.1038/s41580-020-00324-8	Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology
	7	Wang X (2023)	22	Saikosaponin B2 ameliorates depression-induced microglia activation by inhibiting ferroptosis-mediated neuroinflammation and ER stress	10.1016/j.jep.2023.116729	Journal of Ethnopharmacology
	8	Wang Y (2021)	17	Hydrogen sulfide alleviates the anxiety-like and depressive-like behaviors of type 1 diabetic mice via inhibiting inflammation and ferroptosis	10.1016/j.lfs.2021.119551	Life Sciences
	9	Wang L (2023)	17	Targeting the ferroptosis crosstalk: Novel alternative strategies for the treatment of major depressive disorder	10.1136/gpsych-2023-101072	General Psychiatry
	10	Doll S (2019)	16	FSP1 is a glutathione-independent ferroptosis suppressor	10.1038/s41586-019-1707-0	Nature
Pyroptosis in depression	1	Alcocer-Gómez E (2014)	189	NLRP3 inflammasome is activated in mononuclear blood cells from patients with major depressive disorder	10.1016/j.bbi.2013.10.017	Brain, Behavior, and Immunity
	2	Pan Y (2014)	166	Microglial NLRP3 inflammasome activation mediates IL-1β-related inflammation in prefrontal cortex of depressive rats	10.1016/j.bbi.2014.04.007	Brain, Behavior, and Immunity
	3	Kaufmann FN (2017)	130	NLRP3 inflammasome-driven pathways in depression: Clinical and preclinical findings	10.1016/j.bbi.2017.03.002	Brain, Behavior, and Immunity
	4	Miller AH (2016)	102	The role of inflammation in depression: From evolutionary imperative to modern treatment target	10.1038/nri.2015.5	Nature Reviews Immunology
	5	Iwata M (2013)	99	The inflammasome: Pathways linking psychological stress, depression, and systemic illnesses	10.1016/j.bbi.2012.12.008	Brain, Behavior, and Immunity
	6	Zhang Y (2015)	98	NLRP3 inflammasome mediates chronic mild stress-induced depression in mice via neuroinflammation	10.1093/ijnp/pyv006	International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
	7	Zhang Y (2014)	95	Involvement of inflammasome activation in lipopolysaccharide‐induced mice depressive‐like behaviors	10.1111/cns.12170	CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics
	8	Iwata M (2016)	92	Psychological stress activates the inflammasome via release of adenosine triphosphate and stimulation of the purinergic type 2X7 receptor	10.1016/j.biopsych.2015.11.026	Biological Psychiatry
	9	Xu Y (2016)	82	NLRP3 inflammasome activation mediates estrogen deficiency-induced depression-and anxiety-like behavior and hippocampal inflammation in mice	10.1016/j.bbi.2016.02.022	Brain, Behavior, and Immunity
	10	Yue N (2017)	79	Activation of P2X7 receptor and NLRP3 inflammasome assembly in hippocampal glial cells mediates chronic stress-induced depressive-like behaviors	10.1186/s12974-017-0865-y	Journal of Neuroinflammation

CUMS: Chronic unpredictable mild stress; DOI: Digital object identifier; ER: Endoplasmic reticulum; FSP1: Ferroptosis suppressor protein 1; GPX4: Glutathione peroxidase 4; HO-1: Heme oxygenase-1; NLRP3: NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain-containing 3; Nrf2: Nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2; PEBP1: Phosphatidylethanolamine-binding protein 1; P2X7: P2X purinoceptor 7; Sirt1: Sirtuin 1.

Table 6 Top 10 most frequently occurring keywords associated with ferroptosis and pyroptosis in depression

Type	Rank	Keyword	Occurrences	Total link strength
Ferroptosis in depression	1	Ferroptosis	121	414
	2	Depression	73	287
	3	Oxidative stress	31	145
	4	Activation	28	125
	5	Neuroinflammation	25	112
	6	Inflammation	21	95
	7	Expression	19	79
	8	Iron	18	98
	9	Cell death	16	76
	10	Cognitive impairment	13	67
Pyroptosis in depression	1	Depression	488	3756
	2	NLRP3 inflammasome	342	2583
	3	Neuroinflammation	252	1971
	4	Activation	214	1734
	5	Inflammation	158	1211
	6	Stress	137	1113
	7	Inflammasome	128	975
	8	Microglia	125	1056
	9	Oxidative stress	124	922
	10	Brain	120	984

NLRP3: NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain-containing 3.