HMGCR and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis: Notably, differential expression (DE) analysis pointed out significant upregulation of critical genes (adjusted p value < 0.05) in these cholesterol-related pathways in the disease-related module, including HMGCR (the principal rate-limiting enzyme in mevalonate pathway), NPC1L1 (a major gene in intestinal cholesterol absorption) in NASH compared to control group (Data S2).