CIRCULATING miRNAS ARE DEREGULATED IN OVERWEIGHT/OBESE CHILDREN: PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF THE IFAMILY STUDY

MicroRNAs (miRNA) are small non-coding RNAs involved in the modulation of gene expression and in the control of cell functions. Alterations of miRNA patterns often occur in cancer and metabolic disorders, including obesity. Recent studies showed remarkable stability of miRNAs in both plasma and serum making miRNAs potential circulating biomarkers for a variety of diseases. The aim of this pilot study is to evaluate whether circulating miRNAs were differentially expressed in plasma samples of overweight/obese and normal weight children belonging to the Italian cohort of the IFamily project (www.ifamilystudy.eu). The IFamily project builds on the IDEFICS cohort (www.ideficsstudy.eu), established in 2006. It aims to assess the determinants of eating behaviour in children and adolescents from eight European countries Ten overweight/obese (age 11.2±1.5 yrs, BMI 28.2±1.5 Kg/m2) and ten normal weight (age 11.9±1.7 yrs, BMI 16.4±1.7 Kg/m2) children were selected for the pilot study from the Italian participants. MiScript miRNA PCR Array Human Serum/Plasma panels were employed to screen and compare the expression of 384 miRNAs in pooled plasma samples from the two groups. Validation of selected miRNAs was carried out using RT-qPCR. The validation study showed that five specific circulating miRNAs were significantly deregulated in overweight/obese children. Our preliminary results indicate that circulating miRNAs are significantly deregulated in overweight/obese children. The planned completion of the miRNA analyses in selected samples of the eight European countries participating to the IFamily project will allow to assess whether miRNA profiling is a promising strategy to identify children who may suffer from metabolic abnormalities during growth.