SPP1 and chronic hepatitis C virus infection: In recent years, osteopontin (OPN) has been demonstrated to be extensively involved in the progression of various liver diseases, including acute liver failure (ALF) [2,3], metabolism-associated fatty liver disease(MAFLD) [4,5], alcoholic liver disease(ALD) [6] and associated with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) [7] or chronic hepatitis C (CHC) [8] liver fibrosis.