The multiple faces of cardiovascular disease From lipoprotein a to epigenetics

Although major strives have been made in the cardiovascular field, there are still multiple roadblocks on the way, which are expected to become more prevalent due to the growing aging population. This thesis adopts a “bedside to bench and back” approach to shed light on three of these roadblocks and provides mechanistic insights in these underlying cardiovascular processes. In part I, we studied the atherogenicity of Lp(a), thereby providing mechanistic insight in how Lp(a) is a major driver for cardiovascular disease. Then, in part II, we described a novel 3D in vitro model, which could be used to validate molecule drug targets and thereby potentially exclude ineffective drug targets at an earlier stage in the drug development pipeline. Lastly, part III focused on an alternative approach for targeting residual inflammatory risk in atherosclerosis, specifically by targeting the epigenetic machinery that regulates the expression of pro-inflammatory genes.