A second major finding of this study is a strong link between liver CD34 staining and liver fibrosis – and to a lesser extent liver inflammation – observed in 249 patients covering the whole MASLD spectrum (except for MASH cirrhosis), consistent with the associations between liver CD34 staining and FIB-4 (a marker of liver fibrosis), serum AST, ALT, and cytokeratin 18 M65 (a marker of cell death) concentrations observed in the same patients. This evidence concerns the gene KRT18 and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis.