KLRK1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Therefore, higher pre-treatment levels of NKG2D (as shown in Table 1 and Fig 2) could result from such imbalance of inflammatory cytokines from both immune cells or other hepatic non-parenchymal cells such as hepatic stellate cells, especially in highly fibrotic livers, like the cases in IFN−/DAA group of this current study, even if no HCC was clinically evident at the time point of start of IFN-free DAA administration.