APOE and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease: Additionally, in a study conducted in mice by Lu et al. 2020, they found that ApoE deficiency disrupts the AMPK/mTOR pathway, reduces autophagy, and impairs hepatic mitochondrial function, resulting in NAFLD and suggesting that ApoE may regulate the AMPK/mTOR pathway through the modulation of hepatic mitochondrial function in NAFLD [97].