Organoid and organ-on-a-chip have evolved as two critical but distinct approaches to develop human physiologically and pathologically relevant in vitro models. Although rapid progress has been witnessed in the past decade, there is no systematic comparison of their status and trends based on the scientometric analysis. In this study, we performed a comparative study of organoid and organ-on-a-chip using bibliometric methods. A total of 2790 documents published between 2009 and 2018 were retrieved and analyzed. Our results showed that both organoid and organ-on-a-chip had experienced rapid growth in their academic and social impacts and influenced a wide spectrum of disciplines, but with a major distinct focus on Cell Biology and Nanoscience Nanotechnology, respectively. The hotspots of organoid research were expanding from in vitro differentiation of Lgr5 stem cells to mechanistic studies of diseases, while the hotspots of the organ-on-a-chip research were transiting from the establishment of microfluidic devices for in vitro cell culture to stem cell differentiation and tissue engineering. Interestingly, there was a growing trend of combining organoid with organ-on-a-chip in the last few years. This comparative study presented a unique perspective to understand the evolutive history and future trends of organoid and organ-on-a-chip for emerging human relevant in vitro organotypic models.

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