Considering liver injury and inflammation are the typical features of NASH as compared to hepatic simple steatosis, and IL-6 is determined to decrease hepatic RIG-I expression (Fig. 1c, d), we also found that RIG-I decrease in NASH was suppressed by IL-6 knockout or hepatic IL-6 receptor knockout, thus suggesting that proinflammatory cytokine IL-6 mediates RIG-I decrease in NASH (Additional file 2: Fig. S5o). This evidence concerns the gene IL6 and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis.