CD8A and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis: After that, they employed several lines of knock-out mice to dissect the crucial role of CD8+ and NKT cells in NASH and HCC development, and found that CD-HFD activated intrahepatic CD8+ T and NKT cells, and that activated T lymphocytes released inflammatory cytokines and lymphotoxins, such as NKT-derived LIGHT (TNFSF, e.g., Light and Ltαβ) acting on hepatocytes, and exacerbating liver damage, NASH and HCC development.