Fig. 3

Senescent fibroblasts are the main contributors to the healing of RISI. A t-SNE dimensionality reduction showed the cell types identified in the single-cell dataset. B Display of senescent cells at different time points post-irradiation in the single-cell dataset. C Flow cytometry sorts and displays the proportional distribution of various types of senescent cells, with fibroblasts being the predominant type. D Heatmap demonstrates the representative differentially expressed genes that were highly expressed in senescent cells. E GO analysis indicated the enrichment of wound healing pathways in senescent cells. F GSEA compares the enrichment of wound healing pathways among different subtypes of senescent cells; fibroblasts and keratinocytes showed high expression of this pathway. G qPCR analysis of up-regulated wound healing-related genes in senescent fibroblasts sorted 20 days after irradiation, compared to the control group, n = 6. When variance is met, a t-test was used for statistical analysis between two groups, while ANOVA was used for comparisons among three or more groups. If variance wasn’t met, the Mann-Whitney U test was used. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001