CD4 and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease: This observation was further confirmed through the ex vivo stimulation of bacterial extracts from NAFLD-HCC patients in the peripheral mononuclear cells isolated from healthy controls, which showed that cytotoxic cell expansion was suppressed; however, the extract induced greater CD4+CD25+ Treg cell expansion than the bacterial extracts prepared from NAFLD-cirrhosis, which had a negligible effect on isolated cells [82].