Macrosomia is associated with problems at birth and has life-long health implications for the infant. The aim of this study was to profile the plasma
microRNAs (
miRNAs or miRs) and evaluate the potential of circulating
miRNAs to predict
fetal macrosomia. The expression levels of
miRNAs in plasma samples obtained from pregnant women with
fetal macrosomia and from women with normal pregnancies (controls) were analyzed using TaqMan Low-Density Arrays (TLDAs) followed by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) validation and analysis. The TLDA data revealed that 143
miRNAs were differentially expressed in the plasma samples from pregnant women with
fetal macrosomia compared with the controls (43 upregulated and 100 downregulated
miRNAs). Twelve of these
miRNAs were selected for RT-qPCR analysis. Receiver operational characteristic (ROC) curve analysis indicated that several
miRNAs (e.g., miR‑141-3p and miR-200c-3p) were clearly distinguished between pregnancies with
fetal macrosomia and other types of abnormal pregnancy and healthy pregnancies with high sensitivity and specificity (AUC >0.9). The expression of
miRNA clusters also showed a similar trend in pregnancies with
fetal macrosomia. This study provides a platform for profiling circulating
miRNAs in maternal plasma. Our data also suggest that altered levels of maternal plasma
miRNAs have great potential to serve as non-invasive
biomarkers and as a mechanistic
indicator of abnormal pregnancies.