Figure 1.

MiR-15b-5p as a biomarker of exposure to maternal obesity. (A-B) Quantification of serum levels of miR-15b-5p and miR-199a-3p in male (A) and female (B) patients from The Helsinki Birth Cohort Study. Yellow circles represent data from individuals born to healthy low-BMI women; Blue circles represent data from individuals born to women with high BMI. Statistical significance calculated by two-tailed Mann-Whitney exact test. Male control offspring n = 18, male obese offspring n = 18, female control offspring n = 25, female obese offspring n = 20. PCR failed data points (undetermined) are omitted for miR-199a-3p. (C-F) Receiver operating characteristic curves illustrating the diagnostic ability of miR-15b-5p (C) and miR-199a-3p (D) to predict if male patients were born to women with obesity, and the ability of miR-15b-5p (E) and miR-199a-3p (F) to predict if female patients were born to women with obesity. (G) Representative schematics of mouse model. (H-K) Relative miR-15b-5p and miR-199a-3p levels in cardiac tissue of 8-week-old fed (H) and fasted (I) male, and fed (J) and fasted (K) female offspring of dams fed a control (green bars) or a high-fat-high-sucrose diet (red bars). Statistical significance calculated by unpaired two-tailed Student t-test. Male control offspring n = 5, obese offspring n = 6. Female control fasted offspring n = 6, fed offspring n = 7; female obese fasted offspring n = 5, fed offspring n = 7. One outlier data point was removed from offspring of obese dams in panel H according to ROUT test (Q = 1 %) for cardiac miR-199a-3p levels.