An excerpt of the 2026 EASL position paper on preclinical models of steatotic liver disease

Steatotic liver disease is characterized by substantial heterogeneity in etiology， metabolic background， and pathological progression， and no single model can fully recapitulate the spectrum of human disease. There are currently various preclinical models， yet further standardization is needed in terms of nomenclature， model selection， experimental conditions， and assessment indices. Issued by the European Association for the Study of the Liver， this 2026 position paper systematically reviews the in vivo， in vitro， and ex vivo models of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease， metabolic dysfunction and alcohol-associated liver disease， and alcohol-associated liver disease. It proposes the selection of models based on disease subtype， research objective， and target endpoint and provides recommendations for pharmacological positive controls， experimental design， histopathological assessment， and minimum reporting requirements. This article gives an excerpt of the key contents of the position paper， so as to facilitate standardized selection and evaluation of preclinical models for steatotic liver disease and improve their concordance with human disease phenotypes.