Early Second-Trimester Serum MicroRNAs as Potential Biomarker for Nondiabetic Macrosomia

BACKGROUND Macrosomia has become a worldwide problem with the rapid economic growth in the past few years. However, the detailed mechanism of how the macrosomia happened remains unknown. Growing evidence indicates that miRNAs are involved in maintaining metabolic homeostasis. We hypothesized that serum miRNAs are potential biomarkers for macrosomia. METHODS We performed miRNAs profiling using TLDA chips in the discovery phase in two pooled samples from 30 cases and 30 controls, respectively. Individual qRT-PCR was conducted for the discovery phase samples. To confirm the results, we detected the miRNAs which were differentially expressed in the microarray assays and individual qRT-PCR in external validation phase with another 30 cases and 30 controls. RESULTS In the discovery stage, miR-194 and miR-376a expression levels were significantly different between macrosomia group and controls (P=0.048 for miR-194 and P=0.018 for miR-376a, resp.). Further evaluation of the two miRNAs on a total of 120 serum samples showed that the miR-376a remains significantly lower in macrosomia (P=0.032). Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses showed that the area under curve for miR-376a was 67.8% (sensitivity=96.7% and specificity=40.0%). CONCLUSIONS Serum miR-376a may serve as a potential noninvasive biomarker in detecting macrosomia.