Essential to this model’s utility in drug discovery and extending biological understanding of NASH is its ability to recapitulate major aspects of human disease such as fat accumulation, pro-inflammatory cytokine production and hallmarks of fibrosis such as increased gene expression relating to collagen production, deposition of collagen-1 and increased expression of α-SMA within HSC. This evidence concerns the gene ACTA1 and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis.