PNPLA3 and hepatocellular carcinoma: In Japanese studies, Moritou et al. reported that a PNPLA3 polymorphism was significantly associated with serum AFP level (Moritou et al. 2013), and Sato et al. reported that the median time between HCV infection and the development of HCC was significantly shorter for patients with the PNPLA3 GG genotype in HCV-related HCC (Sato et al. 2013).