The Combination of Ephedrae herba and Coicis semen in Gambihwan Attenuates Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome in High-Fat Diet-Induced Obese Mice.

Gambihwan is a herbal prescription used in Korean medicine to treat obesity. The authors evaluated the effects and mechanisms of two types of Gambihwan (GBH1 and 2) administered to high-fat diet- (HFD-) induced obese mice. Four-week-old C57BL/6 mice were fed a HFD for 8 weeks with or without GBH1 or 2 (100-200 mg/kg/day by oral gavage). All mice were subjected to glucose tolerance testing after the 8-week treatment period and then euthanized. Serum insulin, lipids, and inflammatory cytokine levels were analyzed using commercial kits. Hepatic enzyme levels and lipid profiles were also investigated. Liver section slides were stained with Oil Red O (ORO) or hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) to assess lipid accumulation. GBH1 and 2 both significantly decreased body, liver, or adipose tissue weights in HFD-fed mice and significantly improved glucose tolerance (p<0.05 in all groups). Cholesterol levels in both sera and liver homogenates were significantly decreased by GBH1 and 2 (p<0.05 in all groups). In addition, serum inflammatory cytokines (p<0.05 in 200 mg/kg/day groups) and hepatic enzyme levels were significantly diminished by GBH administration at 200mg/kg/day (p<0.05 in all groups). Furthermore, histologic analyses of liver sections revealed GBH suppressed lipid accumulation. Both GBH types suppressed HFD-induced increases in body weight and obesity-related markers in HFD-fed mice despite the difference in constituents between GBH1 and 2. It is strongly assumed that the combination of Ephedrae herba and Coicis semen exerted the antiobesity effect. The results obtained show that the antiobesity effects of GBH warrant further investigation.

Simultaneous noise and distortion reduction of a broadband optical feedforward transmitter for multi-service operation in radio-over-fiber systems.

The broadband optical feedforward transmitter with uncooled and unisolated distributed-feedback laser diodes (DFB LDs) is developed for a radio-over-fiber system. Although we use DFB LDs for digital communications, the feedforward compensation method can significantly suppress the intermodulation distortions and background noise. For the wide frequency range from 2.05 to 2.60 GHz (550 MHz), the third-order intermodulation distortion (IMD3) is suppressed by more than 10 dB. We also analyze the variation of IMD3 and noise for the bias current of LDs. With the linearization technique, the maximum IMD3 suppression and spurious-free dynamic range enhancement are 21.3 dB and 7.11 dB, respectively, at 2.3 GHz.