To investigate whether HCV infection perturbs Occludin localization in vivo, formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded specimens of human liver samples from normal, HCV infected, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) infected donors with early and late stage liver disease were stained for Occludin. Here, OCLN is linked to metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis.