ИСТИНА

Background: Fetal growth restriction (FGR) is diagnosed during pregnancy when fetal body weight is less than 10th percentile of normal weight detected for gestational age and sex. This syndrome was linked to many cases of fetal and neonatal mortality beside its short-term and long-term complications. Long non coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and microRNAs were not widely studied in FGR cases. The presented study aimed to investigate the association of two genetic variations in non-coding RNAs: lnc-­RNA-H19 rs217727 and miR‑33a rs9620000 with FGR risk. Materials and methods. 81 pregnant women were included and classified into two groups: FGR diagnosed pregnancies (n = 34) and control group (n=47) with no history of any pregnancy complications. Genomic DNA was extracted from blood samples using NK-sorbent kit (Lytech. Co. Ltd. Russia). Oligonucleotide primers were designed using NCBI-primer designing tool (primer blast) and genotyping was conducted using allele specific PCR (AS-PCR). Chi-square test (χ2) was used to assess the association with P-value ≤ 0.05 indicates significant association. Results. According to our data, lnc-­RNA-H19 rs217727 did not show significant association with FGR risk (p = 0.49; χ2 = 1.42). On the other hand, results suggest that miR‑33a rs9620000 is significantly associated with FGR (p = 0.031; χ2=4.68). Mutant allele of miR‑33a rs9620000 can be considered as FGR candidate risk factor (OR=2.5; 95% CI=1.1–8.79). Conclusion. Our study excludes the association of lnc-­RNA-H19 rs217727 genetic variation with FGR pathology. However, this the first study to suggest miR‑33a rs9620000 as FGR risk factor. Results will contribute to the efforts of finding maternal prenatal genetic markers for FGR syndrome. Sample size can be considered as a limitation of the presented research, so future trials with larger sample size are recommended. This study was funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation No.FENW-2023–0018.