Current research on epigenetic age and cellular senescence: a bibliometric and visual analysis

The aim of this study is to summarize and visualize the current state of research on epigenetic age and cellular senescence over the last two decades using bibliometric methods and to explore the current research priorities and future development directions. Relevant literature on the topic Epigenetic age and cellular senescence data published between January 2000 and January 2024 were searched in the Web of Science core database and three bibliometric mapping tools (Biblimetrix R Package, VOS Viewer and CiteSpace) were used to provide an overview of the Literature to give and analyze keywords, the co-occurrence of reference citations, authors and institutions, to analyze the current status of epigenetic aging research and hot changes in recent years. A total of 2,193 relevant studies were included, and the co-occurrence network identified seven clusters of associations between epigenetic age and cellular senescence, including effects on human tissues, genetic clock analyses, the relationship of age-related diseases, precise genetic changes and accelerated cellular senescence, localized cellular transformations, and genetic immune regulation. The analysis shows that research in this area has shifted from disease-level studies to mechanism-based studies, with cancer being the main disease and the main pathogenic mechanism being related to DNA methylation. The research direction in recent years has focused on the mechanism study of epigenetic age and cellular senescence as well as target therapy. The bibliometric and visualization analyzes provide a comprehensive understanding of the research progress and the role between epigenetic age and human cellular senescence and enrich the review literature in this field.