Abstract
Background: Animal models play a crucial role in medicine and biology,
but they can’t fully replace human models for studying human biology,
disease mechanisms, and drug efficacy. Human organoids offer an
opportunity to investigate human diseases and complement animal models.
However, research on human organoids lacks comprehensive
characterizations. Objective: Identify and describe publications
exploring and applying organoids. Methods: Thorough analysis of articles
from the past two decades retrieved from Web of Science core collection
database. Examined publication year, authors, institutions, countries,
references, and keywords. Reviewed top 100 highly cited articles using
CiteSpace. Results: Found 6817 original articles on organoids, with a
remarkable surge over the past decade (nearly 70-fold increase since
2009). Collaboration among the United States, China, Germany,
Netherlands, England, and Japan was prominent. Key figures advancing
this field include Clevers Hans, Van Der Laan, Jason R. Spence, and Sato
Toshiro. Top articles covered basic research (39%), stem cell
development, interactions; biobanking (9%) for organoid cultivation;
precision medicine (15%) in cell therapy, drug development; disease
modeling (37%) involving pathogen analysis, genetic variant screening.
Challenges: high costs, technological barriers, lack of standardized
protocols, precise immune system establishment, limited quality clinical
trials. Overcoming these requires collaborative efforts, evaluation
guidelines. Conclusions: Organoid research focuses on basic research,
disease modeling, precision medicine, and biobanking. Prioritizing cost
reduction, technology sharing, international standards, and high-quality
clinical trials is crucial.