Obesity is a major health problem and is known to be closely associated with metabolic diseases. Abnormal hepatic accumulation of fat causes fatty liver or hepatic steatosis, and long-term consumption of a high-fat diet is known to be a key obesity-causing factor. Recent studies have demonstrated that probiotics such as Lactobacillus strains, exert an anti-obesity effect by regulating adipogenesis. However, it is still unknown how the consumption of probiotics can reduce abdominal fat volume by regulating the hepatic expression of lipogenic genes. Therefore, we evaluated the effect of long-term ingestion of L. plantarum LMT1-48 on the expression of lipogenic genes in high-fat diet (HFD)-fed mice. We observed that treatment of 3T3-L1 adipocytes with L. plantarum LMT1-48 extract inhibited their differentiation and lipid accumulation by downregulating lipogenic genes, namely, PPARγ, C/EBPα, FAS, and FABP4. Interestingly, administration of L. plantarum LMT1-48 reduced liver weight and liver triglycerides concurrently with the downregulation of the lipogenic genes PPARγ, HSL, SCD-1, and FAT/CD36 in the liver, resulting in the reduction of body weight and fat volume in HFDfed obese mice. Notably, we also observed that the administration of at least 10 6 CFU of L. plantarum LMT1-48 significantly lowered body weight and abdominal fat volume in modified diet-fed mouse models. Collectively, these data suggest that L. plantarum LMT1-48 is a potential healthy food for obese people. Obesity is a major health problem and causes many diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and liver diseases 1,2. In particular, obesity is closely associated with abnormal accumulation of free fatty acids (FFA) in the liver, resulting in fatty liver or hepatic steatosis 3-5. Fatty liver is classified as microvesicular and macrovesicular fat through the histological accumulation of >5% triglycerides in hepatocytes 6. The major causes of fatty liver are related to drug use, metabolic syndrome, and alcohol consumption 7,8. Insulin resistance is the primary cause of metabolic disorders leading to fat accumulation. Insulin-suppressed hormone-sensitive lipases (HSLs) in adipocytes are activated due to insulin resistance, while triglycerides in adipocytes are released into the blood in the form of fatty acids. Free fatty acids released into the blood increase the fatty acid inflow into the liver, whereby hepatic fat accumulation increases. The mechanism underlying the development of nonalcoholic fatty liver is not fully understood yet, but hepatic fat accumulation is considered a feature of insulin resistance with abdominal obesity and is closely related to metabolic syndrome 9,10. Consequently, long-term consumption of high-fat enriched diets increases the body weight as well as hepatic fat accumulation and hepatic adipocyte proliferation in mammals, thereby leading to obesity 11,12. Interestingly, recent studies have demonstrated that human probiotic strains play an important role in modulating immune responses 13,14 and exert an...

A copper ion ink capable of screen printing and intense pulsed-light (IPL) sintering on poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) substrates was developed. Using copper nitrate trihydrate as a copper precursor, we prepared this ink with 2butoxyethanol solvent and an ethyl cellulose additive to ensure excellent wettability with PET substrates and screen printability. After screen printing on PET substrates with this transparent ion ink, the printed ink patterns dry quickly at a low temperature of 100 °C, and an excellent electrical resistivity of 5 μΩ•cm was obtained by short IPL sintering of 20 ms. Because of the high boiling point of 2-butoxyethanol used as a solvent, this ink has a very low evaporation rate at room temperature, so it is suitable for screen printing without clogging of the screen mesh. With this ion ink, it was possible to screen-print copper patterns with a line width of 200 μm. We compared screen-printing properties using this copper ion ink with those of silver and copper nanoparticle inks. Nanoparticle inks showed significant spread in the printed patterns during the screen printing, whereas this copper ion ink showed the lowest spread to enable the formation of fine patterns. In addition, it was confirmed that this ion ink had the least damage to the PET substrate during the IPL sintering process compared to other nanoparticle inks. This ink also has a long storage stability over 4 weeks without precipitation or phase separation. The optimal ink composition and process conditions for securing such excellent copper pattern printing characteristics were suggested in this study.

The prevention and treatment of chronic inflammation using food-derived compounds are desirable from the perspectives of marketing and safety. Monascus pigments, widely used as food additives, can be used as a chronic inflammation treatment. Orange Monascus pigments were produced by submerged fermentation in a 5 L bioreactor, and multiple orange Monascus pigment derivatives with anti-inflammatory activities were synthesized using aminophilic reaction. A total of 41 types of pigment derivatives were produced by incorporating amines and amino acids into the orange pigments. One derivative candidate that inhibited nitric oxide (NO) production in Raw 264.7 cells and exhibited low cell cytotoxicity was identified via in vitro assay. The 2-amino-4 picoline derivative inhibited NO production of 48.4%, and exhibited cell viability of 90.6%. Expression of inducible NO synthase, an important enzyme in the NO synthesis pathway, was suppressed by such a derivative in a dose-dependent manner. Therefore, this derivative has potential as a functional food colorant with anti-inflammatory effects.

1-Arylnaphthalene lignans such as (–)-isoguaiacin and (–)-isogalbulin have been reported to exhibit notable biological properties. While (–)-isoguaiacin has not been previously synthesized, syntheses of (–)-isogalbulin are generally long and produce a mixture of stereoisomers. We herein present the efficient total synthesis of (±)-isoguaiacin and (±)-isogalbulin in seven and eight steps with an overall yield of 46% and 36%, respectively. The reported approach harnesses a hydrogenolysis reaction in acidic conditions, to convert a furan into an arylnaphthalen structure.

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