Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 21, 2025; 31(15): 104528
Published online Apr 21, 2025. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v31.i15.104528
Rethinking carnitine palmitoyltransferase II and liver stem cells in metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease-related hepatocellular carcinoma
Hong Cai, Chun-Hui Yang, Peng Gao
Hong Cai, Chun-Hui Yang, Peng Gao, Department of Clinical Laboratory, The Second Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian 116023, Liaoning Province, China
Co-first authors: Hong Cai and Chun-Hui Yang.
Author contributions: Cai H and Yang CH contributed equally as co-first authors; Cai H contributed to the discussion, writing, and editing of the manuscript, as well as the review of the literature; Yang CH designed the overall concept and outline of the manuscript; Gao P reviewed and revised the manuscript for important intellectual content; All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript to be published.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Peng Gao, PhD, Professor, Department of Clinical Laboratory, The Second Hospital of Dalian Medical University, No. 467 Zhongshan Road, Dalian 116023, Liaoning Province, China. gaop@dmu.edu.cn
Received: December 28, 2024
Revised: February 27, 2025
Accepted: March 13, 2025
Published online: April 21, 2025
Processing time: 113 Days and 5.1 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: This article reviews a recent study by Wang et al investigating how carnitine palmitoyltransferase II (CPT II) inactivity drives malignant progression in metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) through aberrant lipid metabolism, T-cell dysfunction, and liver cancer stem cell activation. Their work revealed that mitochondrial damage and reduced CPT II activity under lipid-rich conditions may be early indicators of liver cancer risk, influencing immune cell profiles and the stem cell-like properties of hepatocytes. Understanding these processes could pave the way for novel preventative and therapeutic interventions targeting the metabolic and immunological underpinnings of MAFLD-related hepatocarcinogenesis.