PPARA and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease: PPARα activity is protective against liver steatosis, as demonstrated in animal models; in a rat model of NAFLD, its expression was significantly downregulated compared to that of normal rats [42], and Montagner et al. showed that the hepatic deletion of PPARα altered liver FA homeostasis and led to the development of hepatic steatosis/steatohepatitis [43].