It has been previously reported that malignant cells, such as ovarian cancer cells, secrete CKLF and thus promote the proliferation of cancer cells in an autocrine or paracrine manner (Liu et al. 2018), suggesting that HCC cells themselves might also overexpress CKLF. Furthermore, the levels of CKLF gene DNA methylation in NASH-related HCCs were the same as those in viral hepatitis-related HCCs (Fig. 3), indicating that CKLF could be a potential target in HCCs regardless of etiology. This evidence concerns the gene CKLF and animal viral hepatitis.