SCD and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis: MUFAs represent the precursors of the main components of cellular membranes and are crucially important in the pathogenesis of the MetS, NAFLD, NASH, and HCC pathogenesis.48, 49, 50 This is supported by clinical studies demonstrating worse overall survival of patients with HCCs who demonstrate a high SCD expression, compared to HCCs with low SCD expression.