n-3 LCPUFA intervention during pregnancy alters placental microRNA expression, potential miR-99a/mRNA interactions, involving mTOR, LAT1 and TauT, and maternal and fetal blood plasma amino acid levels

Our previous analyses of placentas revealed sexually dimorphic mRNA expression and responsiveness to maternal dietary supplementation with n-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA). In this secondary analysis we aimed to explore the respective placental microRNA expression and putative microRNA-mRNA target interactions, and their associations with offspring body composition. Considering our previous data showing mRNA expression changes predominantly in female placentas following the n-3 LCPUFA intervention Sedlmeier et al. 2014, we analyzed for the initial explorative microRNA profiling total RNA containing small RNA of a pool of female placentas assigned to the control (n=3) or a pool of the n-3 LCPUFA intervention group (n=3).