{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,20]],"date-time":"2026-08-20T04:26:10Z","timestamp":1787199970280,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,20]],"date-time":"2026-08-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787184000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100016359","name":"Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100016359","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Oncol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Radiotherapy is a key treatment method for cancer, but high-dose treatment can lead to damage to normal tissues and chronic fibrosis. There is a lack of systematic temporal analysis of the dynamic progression from early damage signals to late extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods and materials<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      We reanalyzed publicly available scRNA-seq count matrices from GSE211713 to explore microenvironmental remodeling during fibrosis. Then, we established an\n                      <jats:italic>in vivo<\/jats:italic>\n                      local irradiation (12 Gy) mouse model with fully irradiated wounds and boundary-spanning wounds. For tissue repair and molecular phenotyping evaluations, we used tissue staining, IHC, qPCR, and WB.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>scRNA-seq revealed temporal decoupling between ECM-related transcription and myofibroblast function. Our mouse model showed spatial heterogeneity: although the fully irradiated wound exhibited typical inhibition of healing, the wound across the irradiation boundary showed a rapid, matrix-rich response within 14 days. TGF-\u03b2\/SMAD-related signals, myofibroblast markers, and collagen deposition in the animal model were not strictly synchronous. Additionally, CellChat predicted SPP1-centered communication at the late fibrosis stage.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Fibrosis after radiotherapy may be influenced not only by local damage but also by the boundary microenvironment. These findings support a shift toward ECM-dominant remodeling and provide a hypothesis-generating basis for targeted intervention.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fonc.2026.1871514","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,20]],"date-time":"2026-08-20T04:16:23Z","timestamp":1787199383000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Single-cell transcriptomics and a boundary wound model reveal temporal decoupling and microenvironmental heterogeneity in radiation-induced fibrosis"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Bingyue","family":"Cao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Radiation and Medical Oncology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan University","place":["Wuhan, China"]},{"name":"Hubei Key Laboratory of Tumor Biological Behaviors, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan University","place":["Wuhan, China"]},{"name":"Hubei Cancer Clinical Study Center, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan University","place":["Wuhan, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Pan","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical Laboratory, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University","place":["Wuhan, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yujia","family":"Tan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Radiation and Medical Oncology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan University","place":["Wuhan, China"]},{"name":"Hubei Key Laboratory of Tumor Biological Behaviors, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan University","place":["Wuhan, China"]},{"name":"Hubei Cancer Clinical Study Center, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan University","place":["Wuhan, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yongchang","family":"Wei","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Radiation and Medical Oncology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan University","place":["Wuhan, China"]},{"name":"Hubei Key Laboratory of Tumor Biological Behaviors, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan University","place":["Wuhan, China"]},{"name":"Hubei Cancer Clinical Study Center, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan University","place":["Wuhan, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.7150\/ijms.3635","article-title":"Cancer and radiation therapy: current advances and future directions","volume":"9","author":"Baskar","year":"2012","journal-title":"Int J Med 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