FGF21 and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease: However, plasma FGF21 levels are significantly higher in patients with NAFLD than in healthy individuals and are positively associated with the degree of the liver steatosis score in patients with NAFLD [25,26,27], indicating that the high-circulating FGF21 levels in patients with NAFLD does not appear to alleviate the condition; possibly due to resistance toward FGF21 [28].