This strong association between TM6SF2 rs58542926 and fibrosis stage was replicated independently in the validation cohort (β=0.238±0.097, 95%CI 0.047–0.428; P=0.014) and also clearly demonstrated in the combined cohort (β=0.357±0.079, 95%CI 0.203–0.511; P=6.36 × 10−6) by using an additive model adjusted for gender, age at biopsy, BMI, T2DM and PNPLA3 rs738409 genotype in both cases. Here, PNPLA3 is linked to type 2 diabetes mellitus.