CD44 and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease: In human NAFLD cases, although there were strong correlations between CD44+ and CD68+ (Spearman 0.735, p < 0.001) and CD163+ (Spearman 0.695, p < 0.001) cells, the level of CD44 was significantly lower in control NAFLD cases without HCC (F8B) (p < 0.001 relative to CD163 and p < 0.05 relative to CD68).