ACE2 and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease: In rat models of CCL4-induced hepatic fibrosis and fructose fed-NAFLD (Zhang W. et al., 2013; Frantz et al., 2017), the hepatic RAS was over-activated and imbalanced, and the ratios of ACE/ACE2, AngII/Ang1-7, and AT1R/Mas were upregulated.