In the supernatants of metformin untreated whole blood culture, the highest levels of IL-1β and IL-6 were indicated for the obese NAFLD patients, which differed significantly from the other two groups (P≤0.01–0.0001 depending on the group and cytokine) (Fig 2A and 2B). Here, IL1B is linked to metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease.