Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease may increase intrahepatic interferon gene signatures in patients with chronic hepatitis B

As metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) frequently co_x0002_occurs in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), the interplay between these two common liver conditions remains largely unexplored. A recent study suggest that MASH comorbidity can reduce intrahepatic interferon pathway activity and macrophage gene signatures in HBeAg_x0002_negative chronic HBV (ENEG) patients, potentially contributing to persistent infection and fibrosis. However, it remains unclear whether this phenomenon also occurs in MASLD with CHB patients. Overall design: Firstly, we evaluated the results in our cohort of CHB patients. Liver samples from seven ENEG patients and eleven ENEG patients with MASLD were analyzed using RNA-seq. Further, we validated our findings through an animal study. rAAV8-1.3 HBV was administered intravenously to C57BL/6 mice to mimic chronic HBV infection. A high-fat diet was maintained for 16 weeks to establish the MASLD model ,We collected livers from each group of mice and sent the livers for RNA-seq analysis.