Despite these observations, the antifibrotic effect of BMP7 is still controversial due to the fact that in patients with cirrhosis and chronic hepatitis B as well as children with biliary atresia, an increase in BMP7 expression in hepatocytes and/or increased levels of BMP7 in serum have been found [119] and at least in some cases it was associated with higher disease severity [119]. Here, BMP7 is linked to chronic hepatitis B virus infection.