A minority of somatically mutated genes in pre-existing fatty liver disease have prognostic importance in the development of NAFLD.

Despite the acquisition of somatic mutations at these loci during progressive fatty liver disease, we did not find associations between germline variation and markers of liver disease, except in GPAM. In the future, larger sample sizes may identify associations. Currently, germline polygenic risk scores will not capture data from genes affected by somatic mutations.