To further investigate whether CD36+ and MIF+ CAFs play a role in HCC initiation, we established Cd36 (Acta2Cre;Cd36fl/fl) and MIF (Acta2Cre;Miffl/fl) conditional knockout 6-week-old mice to determine that HCC tumor burden and the proportion of MDSCs were significantly reduced when Cd36 or MIF was knockout in vivo (Fig. 6a–d), which indicated CD36+ CAFs were involved in HCC initiation. This evidence concerns the gene CD36 and hepatocellular carcinoma.