Editorial: Hepatitis B virus infection and risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: A population‐based cohort study‐authors' reply.

We thank Thomas Worland and colleagues for their comments in our article.[[1]] They pointed out no significant correlation between hepatitis B virus (HBV) activity (both histologically and serologically) and the degree of steatohepatitis on liver biopsy at a single quaternary liver transplant centre. Among the participants without antiviral treatment, compared with participants without fatty liver, those with fatty liver had a lower level of HBV DNA among the whole period of follow-up (F = 12.59, I P i < .001). Fatter liver was persistently associated with lower serum HBV DNA levels, suggesting its potential negative influence on the living space of virus, which was similar with previous studies.[[3]] Furthermore, we found that there were no significant different HBV DNA levels changing trends in partcipants with fatty liver or without. [Extracted from the article]