Investigating the association of toll-like receptor 9 rs5743836, rs352140, and rs187084 gene polymorphisms and their mRNA levels with different hepatic fibrosis stages of non-alcoholic fatty liver patients compared to healthy controls.

Recent studies have shown that the level of hepatocyte-derived mitochondrial DNA is elevated in plasma samples obtained from mice and NASH patients, and it has the ability to toll-like receptor 9 () activation resulting in steatosis, hepatocyte injury, and fibrosis. In this study, we explored the association between rs5743836, rs352140, and rs187084 polymorphism and its plasma mRNA level in non-alcoholic fatty liver (NAFL) patients with different liver fibrosis scores compared to healthy controls. Seventy Iranian patients diagnosed with NAFL, based on fibroscan testing results, were divided into F0-F1 (N=33), F2-F3 (N=19), and F4 (N=18) hepatic fibrosis groups and compared to 22 healthy controls.