HGF and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis: In NASH/NAFLD patients, direct correlations between stage and HGF (r = 0.61, p < 0.001) (Figure 1b), BMP-9 (r = 0.62, p < 0.001) (Figure 2b), and VEGF-A (r = 0.41, p = 0.03) levels emerged, and that, in these subjects, grade was positively associated with VEGF-D (r = 0.48, p = 0.03), BMP-9 (r = 0.68, p < 0.001), HGF (r = 0.61, p < 0.001), and IL-8 (r = 0.58, p = 0.02) serum levels.