LEP and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease: Research has shown that inhibiting Th17 and cytotoxic T (Tc) among T-cell subsets in VAT, along with activating Treg, can reduce plasma ALT and leptin levels, alleviating hepatic steatosis, inflammation, and fibrosis, thereby improving NAFLD (He et al., 2017; Van Herck et al., 2020).