During our EASL 2025 Breakfast Meeting, we were pleased to host an engaging session featuring two insightful presentations by Prof. Arun Sanyal and Prof. Jörn Schattenberg, followed by a dynamic roundtable discussion with Dr. Michael Cooreman, Dr. Mark Hartman, Dr. Michelle Long, and Dr. Becky Taub.

Prof. Sanyal opened the session with a thought-provoking talk on Predicting fibrosis progressors and regressors: SHG & AI-based analysis using the NASH-CRN cohort.

Key Highlights:

• Prognostic models demonstrate strong potential for tracking disease progression and regression
• Zonal collagen signatures enable distinction between progression and regression, supporting use in clinical trials.
• Large-scale validation is ongoing to define clinically meaningful changes.

Prof. Jörn Schattenberg continued with Decoding Fibrosis Response in MASH: Bridging NITs, Histology, and AI-based collagen metrics with data from the HARMONY trial. 

Key questions explored:

• Are NIT responders showing greater relative change in patients treated with Efruxifermin compared to those on placebo?

• Can qFibrosis more effectively detect fibrosis response in patients identified by various NITs, and distinguish responses between treated and placebo groups?

Summary Takeaway:

AI-powered zonal fibrosis analysis adds critical depth to understanding treatment response in MASH. When combined with NITs, it reveals patterns that traditional methods may miss—especially in treated patients. Aligning non-invasive tools with detailed histological resolution is essential for improving detection of drug-related fibrosis regression and optimizing trial design over different timeframes.