TURNING UP THE HEAT ON MASH MODELING.

In this issue, Leke et al. demonstrate that thermoneutral housing markedly accelerates Western diet-induced metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), resulting in enhanced hepatic inflammation, fibrosis, and disease severity. Importantly, thermoneutral conditions produce a hepatic transcriptional landscape that more closely resembles human MASH than conventional housing. These findings further establish that providing homeostatic conditions via thermoneutral housing is an important element and a practical strategy for improving the translational relevance of preclinical MASH models.