## 4 Discussion  
Obesity is the result of excessive weight gain due to an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure [48]. Obesity is mainly caused by HFD and has characteristics such as weight gain, lipid accumulation, elevated blood lipids, and inflammation, along with the closely associated increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes [49; 50; 51]. About 90% of type 2 diabetes cases are caused by being overweight [52]. Feeding mice HFD causes obesity, hyperglycemia, increased glucose levels, increased serum insulin levels, and insulin resistance [53], potentially leading to the development of type 2 diabetes. Mice fed an HFD may experience body weight gain and increased adipose tissue mass, with ICR mice being the most suitable among the tested strains in terms of obesity-related factors [54]. For this reason, we used ICR mice in this experiment. In this study, the body weight of mice fed an HFD increased by 33.95% compared with mice fed an NFD, confirming the establishment of an obesity animal model (Table 2). In addition, the diabetes animal model was verified by an increase in blood glucose levels (Table 3, Figure 3A). In our study, FF showed control serum ALT and AST levels. The elevation of these liver markers indicates that HFD induced severe liver damage, and these results show that FF significantly protected against liver damage (Figure 7). Lipid accumulation in the liver is a typical feature of obesity [55]. Additionally, hepatic fatty infiltration is a sign of hepatic steatosis, and the reduction of lipid droplets in the liver may improve hepatic steatosis [56; 57]. Lipid droplets serve as a hallmark of lipid accumulation and signify early pathological changes in liver metabolism [58]. Excessive lipid accumulation within these droplets is implicated in metabolic disorders such as obesity and diabetes [59]. A histopathological examination showed that FF helps in reducing lipid droplets in the liver (Figure 4A). Additionally, as depicted in Figure 2B, the color of the liver in the FF  
Figure 9: Effects of fermented fig (FF) on liver adipogenesis markers in HFD-fed mice. (**A**) protein expression; (**B**) FAS; (**C**) FABP 4; (**D**) C/EBP\(\alpha\); (**E**) ACC. NFD, mice treated with only DW; HFD, mice treated with HFD and DW; GTE, mice treated with HFD and green tea extract (GTE) 50 mg/kg; FF, mice treated with HFD and FF (50, 125, and 250 mg/kg). The results are expressed as mean \(\pm\) SEM (\(n=8\)). \({}^{\alpha\!\!-\!\! administration group appeared dark red, similar to that of the NFD group, which was visible to the naked eye. This suggests that FF can help improve liver steatosis. Obesity is a major risk factor for various metabolic disorders, including hyperglycemia, elevated serum lipid levels, type 2 diabetes, and atherosclerosis [60]. Obesity is associated with increased levels of TC, TG, and LDL in the serum and concurrently decreased levels of HDL [61]. Long-term HFD consumption leads to an excess of calories in the body, resulting in the excessive production of fatty acids, which are converted into TG and accumulate in adipose tissue, leading to increases in serum TC and TG levels [62]. HFD is a contributing factor to elevated TC levels [43], and increased visceral fat accumulation due to HFD consumption influences the TG concentration, exacerbating lipid metabolism disorders [44]. The _Lactobacillus_ genus as a probiotic has been demonstrated in various studies [63; 64]. Obesity has various causes, but the primary factor is the excessive accumulation of intracellular TC resulting from the activation of adipogenesis [2]. _L. plantarum_ positively affects insulin sensitivity and reduces TC levels in the obese mice model [65]. As in Figure 6, serum TC and TG levels increased due to an HFD. In this study, we utilized fermented figs produced using _L. plantarum_ BT-LP-01 isolated and identified from figs.