Gut Microbiota and Hyperuricemia Research Is Exploding — Here's What We Know

Hyperuricemia (HUA) — chronically elevated blood uric acid — affects a significant portion of the global population, with prevalence rates ranging from 11% in South Korea to over 70% in French Polynesia. Beyond triggering gout, HUA is independently linked to kidney stones, hypertension, coronary artery disease, and type 2 diabetes. As the gut microbiota has emerged as a key regulator of metabolism and immunity, understanding its relationship to uric acid homeostasis has become a fast-growing research priority.

To map this evolving field, researchers conducted the first comprehensive bibliometric analysis of gut microbiota and HUA literature. They searched PubMed and Web of Science Core Collection for publications from January 2005 through December 2024, ultimately including 735 papers — 605 original articles and 130 reviews — after excluding duplicates, conference abstracts, and unrelated content. Analytical tools VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and Bibliometrix were used to visualize co-authorship networks, keyword clusters, citation trends, country-level contributions, and journal landscapes.

The data revealed a dramatic acceleration in research activity. Fewer than 10 papers per year were published before 2013; this grew to 15–35 papers annually through 2019, then surged to 65–140 publications per year from 2020 to 2024, with 2024 marking the highest output ever. China contributed the most publications (n=413), followed by the United States (n=126), Japan, Italy, and Germany. However, the US led in total citations (6,591 vs. China's 5,200), suggesting higher per-paper impact. Key institutional contributors included the University of California San Diego and Qingdao University. The most influential authors were Sanjay K. Nigam and Chenyang Lu.

Keyword analysis uncovered the field's core preoccupations: gut microbiome composition in HUA patients, uric acid metabolism, inflammation pathways, gout, and probiotic interventions. Specific bacterial taxa such as Firmicutes and Actinobacteria are known to metabolize uric acid into xanthine or short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), offering protective effects. Conversely, gut dysbiosis can impair intestinal barrier integrity, increasing permeability and disrupting renal uric acid excretion. Emerging research hotspots identified via keyword timeline visualization include dietary fiber supplementation, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), and the gut-kidney axis — signaling a shift from descriptive microbiome characterization toward mechanistic and therapeutic investigations.

These findings carry meaningful implications for longevity medicine. HUA-driven organ damage accumulates silently over years, and the gut microbiota represents a modifiable target through diet, probiotics, and possibly FMT. The gut-kidney axis in particular offers a compelling framework for understanding how microbial dysbiosis accelerates renal aging. The study's bibliometric design, however, limits causal inference — it maps the research landscape rather than evaluating clinical outcomes directly, and language bias (English-only inclusion) may underrepresent findings from non-English-speaking regions.