In order to ascertain whether this regulatory mechanism is particular to MAFLD or general to liver pathogenesis such as viral hepatitis-induced liver fibrosis, we subsequently detected these regulating molecules (METTL14, GLS2, MyD88, S100A4, and α-SMA) and fibrosis degrees in the para-tumor tissues from the patients with HBV infection (Supplementary Fig. 12a–f). Here, S100A4 is linked to viral hepatitis.