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...

Hypocalcemia is a rare cause of dilated cardiomyopathy. Hypocalcemia induced cardiomyopathy is usually reversible when calcium level returns to normal range. We experienced a case of 57-year-old woman who had suffered from hypocalcemia after total thyroidectomy and its consequence of dilated cardiomyopathy. After supplementation of calcium and vitamin D, symptoms of heart failure and LV function were recovered.