Interestingly, as it will be discussed next, in vivo models in the context of MASH-induced HCC and pre-cancerous MASH stages, highlight a population of exhausted CD8+ T cells which tend to adopt a CXCR6+ PD1high phenotype, indicative of their tendency to act auto-aggressively (Dudek et al., 2021) and impair the liver’s immune surveillance (Pfister et al., 2021), both in humans and mice. This evidence concerns the gene CD8A and hepatocellular carcinoma.