MALAT1 and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease: LncRNAs identified in animal models, discussed above, were also highly expressed in fibrosis relative to normal tissue in NAFLD patients, including NEAT1, MALAT1, and PVT1. Of these, MALAT1 showed the strongest evidence for differential expression in fibrotic samples as compared to samples with either normal and inflammation histology, both of which showed similar levels of expression.