ADIPOQ and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease: Furthermore, in a retrospective study of 105 hepatitis C virus (HCV) patients (50 cirrhotic HCC, 19 non-cirrhotic HCC, and 36 cirrhotic without HCC) and 21 apparently healthy controls, circulating adiponectin was higher in cirrhosis and cirrhotic HCC patients compared with controls, but no difference was observed in the comparison between noncirrhotic HCC patients and controls [73], which further strengthened the previous hypothesis, although, again, this study was not referring to patients with NAFLD.