Global landscape and trends of single-cell sequencing in liver fibrosis: a bibliometric and visual study

Liver fibrosis is a critical stage in reversing the progression of chronic liver disease toward cirrhosis, and its mechanism analysis is crucial for clinical intervention. Offering key advantages such as verifying cellular identity and functional heterogeneity of liver cells, single-cell sequencing has become a cutting-edge and robust tool for the in-depth exploration of liver fibrosis. However, systematic sorting and global understanding remains lacking. In recent years, integration of multiple bibliometric visualization tools has significantly enhanced research depth and comprehensiveness while ensuring higher accuracy and efficiency in data processing. Therefore, this study integrated three advanced bibliometric visualization tools, including CiteSpace, Bibliometrix, and VOSviewer, to demonstrate global landscape and evolution trends by conducting multidimensional and comprehensive analysis of research data. Strictly adhering to PRISMA selection criteria, the study precisely screened 407 high-quality publications focusing on ‘single-cell sequencing applied to liver fibrosis’ from the Web of Science Core Collection between 2015 and 2025. The analysis results first validated the fundamental insights: as a popular emerging field, total number of literatures has increased and new keywords have emerged. Multidimensional chart analysis revealed three core research hotpots: single-cell sequencing for dissecting heterogeneity of liver cells, inflammatory microenvironment of liver and integrated researches of liver fibrosis. This study further suggested significant potential in the combined analysis of gut microbiome and liver single-cell sequencing to explore the ‘gut-liver axis’ mechanism. By employing systematic bibliometric analysis, we have gained a comprehensive global overview of the application of single-cell sequencing in liver fibrosis over the past decade, clarified the current research hotspots, and foreshadowed future emerging frontiers. All these offer greater opportunities for thorough application of single-cell sequencing to deepen the understanding of liver fibrosis mechanism and facilitate the development of novel therapies.