This revealed that only three ubiquitously imprinted genes were significantly differentially expressed; ZNF331 was higher in IUGRs compared to controls (IUGR mean 1.32 vs control mean 0.78, p = 0.041), whereas PEG10 (IUGR mean 1.05 vs control mean 1.57, p = 0.047) and ZDBF2 (IUGR mean 0.98 vs control mean 1.5, p = 0.029) were significantly lower (Fig. 4e; Additional file 9). This evidence concerns the gene ZDBF2 and fetal growth restriction.