MERTK and steatosis: Our results demonstrated that the atherogenic-diet group showed steatosis, ballooning degeneration, severe inflammation, and foci formation compared to the normal diet group, whereas treatment with MERTK+/hi M2c macrophages alleviated the severity of NAFLD, especially the inflammation and foci formation, and decreased the score of NAFLD activity compared to the atherogenic-diet group.