La obesidad y su relación con los contaminantes ambientales, la alimentación y los mecanismos epigenéticos / Obesity related to environmental pollutants, diet and epigenetic mechanisms

Introduction: Obesity is a chronic disease resulting from environmental, psychological and genetic factors. The objective was to carry out a bibliometry of the scientific literature on this pathology related to environmental pollutants, food and epigenetics, to elucidate lines of research. Materials and method: The documents were managed from the Web of Science database. The search strategy was Obesity AND (pollution OR contamination) in the Titles field, AND (epigenetic * OR obesity OR food OR nutrition OR diet) in Themes. 654 articles were found: 577 original investigations and 77 reviews. The articles were exported in BibTeX format to be analyzed with the Bibliometrix program. Results: The evolution of the production of reports per year has been upward. In 2020, the average number of references of the original articles was 38 and of the review articles, 200. Based on the Lotka index combined with the h index, the most prominent author was Joel Schwartz. The United States concentrated the largest production of scientific articles, which coincides with the location of the institutions with the highest affiliation of the authors. The 5 most frequent keywords were: air pollution, particulate matter, obesity, pollution and epigenetics. Conclusions: A line of research on obesity linked to DNA methylation, oxidative stress and PM2.5 is proposed; which will contribute to reducing this pandemic and, therefore, will impact the morbidity and mortality profiles of non-communicable diseases and COVID-19.

Introducción: La obesidad es una enfermedad crónica resultante de factores ambientales, psicológicos y genéticos. El objetivo fue realizar una bibliometría de la literatura científica sobre esta patología relacionada con contaminantes ambientales, alimentación y epigenética, para dilucidar líneas de investigación. Materiales y método: Los documentos se gestionaron de la base de datos Web of Science. La estrategia de búsqueda fue Obesity AND (pollution OR contamination) en el campo Titles, AND (epigenetic* OR obesity OR alimentation OR nutrition OR diet) en Themes. Se encontraron 654 artículos: 577 investigaciones originales y 77 revisiones. Los artículos se exportaron en formato BibTeX para ser analizados con el programa Bibliometrix. Resultados: La evolución que ha tenido la producción de infrmes por año ha sido ascendente. En 2020, el promedio del número de referencias de los artículos originales fue de 38 y de los artículos de revisión, 200. Con base en el índice de Lotka aunado con el índice h, el autor más destacado fue Schwartz. Estados Unidos concentró la mayor producción de artículos científicos, lo que coincide con la ubicación de las instituciones con más adscripción de los autores. Las cinco palabras clave más frecuentes fueron: contaminación del aire, material particulado, obesidad, contaminación y epigenética. Conclusiones: Se propone una línea de investigación sobre la obesidad vinculada con la metilación del ADN, estrés oxidativo y material particulado fino; lo que contribuirá a reducir esta pandemia y por lo tanto, impactará en los perfiles de morbimortalidad de las enfermedades no transmisibles y de la COVID-19.

A bibliometric and visualized analysis of research progress and frontiers on health effects caused by PM2.5.

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is one of the major air pollutants. A large number of epidemiological and experimental studies have shown that PM2.5 pollution can cause adverse health consequences, which has attracted more public attention. In order to have a deeper and more structured understanding of the research progress and frontiers on the impact of PM2.5 on health, in this study, we used the bibliometrics software CiteSpace to analyze the relevant literature in this field. The results show that since 2000, the relevant literature has increased steadily, especially in the last 5 years, and the number of publications in China has increased rapidly. The United States has the most publications. The Chinese Academy of Sciences and Professor Joel Schwartz are the most published institution and author, respectively, and many articles have been published in the journal of Environmental Health Perspectives. Over time, studies on the health effects of PM2.5 have gradually deepened. In addition to a more comprehensive study of its harmful effects, the related molecular mechanisms have also been further explored. We believe that countries and regions should strengthen cooperation and jointly solve the harm caused by PM2.5 through the integration of multiple disciplines and fields. In addition, the adverse health consequences and its related mechanisms caused by exposure to ultrafine particle, different chemical components of PM2.5, as well as the intervention of the health effects caused by PM2.5 need to be further studied.