Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Jun;22(6):664-71.
doi: 10.1177/1933719114561557. Epub 2014 Dec 17.

Serum MicroRNAs as Diagnostic Biomarkers for Macrosomia

Hua Jiang  1 , Yang Wen  2 , Lingmin Hu  3 , Tingting Miao  3 , Ming Zhang  3 , Jing Dong  2
Affiliations

Serum MicroRNAs as Diagnostic Biomarkers for Macrosomia

Hua Jiang et al. Reprod Sci. 2015 Jun.

Abstract

Background: Macrosomia is defined as an infant's birth weight of more than 4000 g. Although microRNAs (miRNAs) have been implicated in the pathogenesis of various diseases, the associations between serum miRNAs and macrosomia have been rarely reported.

Methodology: We used the Taqman Low Density Array followed by quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction assays to screen for miRNAs associated with macrosomia using serum samples collected 1 week before delivery.

Results: Profiling results showed that 1 miRNA was significantly upregulated and 10 miRNAs were significantly downregulated in serum samples of macrosomia (ΔΔCt > 3-fold). The expression levels of miR-21 were significantly decreased in macrosomia as compared to the controls in the third trimester. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses showed that the area under the ROC curve for miR-21 was 67.7% (sensitivity = 66.7% and specificity = 70.0%).

Conclusions: miR-21 in maternal serum is differentially expressed between macrosomia and controls, and miR-21 could be used as a candidate biomarker to predict macrosomia.

Keywords: TLDA; biomarker; macrosomia; microRNA; serum.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Schematic diagram of the workflow of this study. TLDA indicates TaqMan Low Density Array; qRT-PCR, quantitative reverse-transcriptase PCR assay; ROC, receiver operating characteristic curve.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Expression levels of miRNAs. VI indicates discovery stage blood samples 1 week before delivery, n = 30; VII, validation stage blood samples 1 week before delivery, n = 60; VIII, validation stage blood samples early second trimester, n = 30. VI, MiRNA-21 (P = .011) and miRNA-20a (P = .015) were significantly differentially expressed among macrosomia cases compared with controls (30 pairs). VII, The levels of the miRNA-21 (P = 0.028) was significantly lower in serum samples at 1 week before delivery of macrosomia, but the expression levels of the miRNA20a (P = .312) were no different among the 60 pairs. VIII, The expression levels of the 2 miRNAs were no different among early second-trimester serum sample of macrosomia cases compared with controls.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Receiver-operating characteristic of the miR-21 signature to predict macrosomia between macrosomia pregnant women and controls: area under the curve (AUC) = 0.677, sensitivity = 0.667, specificity = 0.7.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Lu Y, Zhang J, Lu X, Xi W, Li Z. Secular trends of macrosomia in southeast China, 1994-2005. BMC Public Health. 2011;11:818. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Koyanagi A, Zhang J, Dagvadorj A, et al. Macrosomia in 23 developing countries: an analysis of a multicountry, facility-based, cross-sectional survey. Lancet. 2013;381 (9865):476–483. - PubMed
    1. Xie RH, Cao H, Hong B, Sprague AE, Walker M, Wen SW. Occurrence and predictors of vacuum and forceps used sequentially for vaginal birth. J Obstet Gynaecol Can. 2013;35 (4):317–322. - PubMed
    1. Yu ZB, Han SP, Zhu GZ, Zhu C, Wang XJ, et al. Birth weight and subsequent risk of obesity: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Obes Rev. 2011;12 (7):525–542. - PubMed
    1. Li XY, Jiang Y, Hu N, et al. [Prevalence and characteristic of overweight and obesity among adults in China, 2010]. Zhonghua Yu Fang Yi Xue Za Zhi. 2012;46 (8):683–686. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms