................................................................................................................................... III Preface ...................................................................................................................................... IV Table of contents ....................................................................................................................... V Intro .................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1.1 The non-coding RNAs ......................................................................................... 2 1.1.2 History of lncRNAs .............................................................................................. 4 1.1.3 lncRNA definition ................................................................................................ 5 1.1.4 Classification of lncRNAs .................................................................................... 5 1.1.5 Localization and expression ................................................................................. 7 1.1.6 Functions, mechanisms and secondary structure ................................................. 8 1.2 Cardiovascular disease .............................................................................................. 10 1.2.1 Pathophysiology of atherosclerotic disease ........................................................ 10 1.2.2 LncRNAs in cardiovascular development and differentiation ........................... 11 Table 1: List of lncRNA involved in tissue development and organogenesis ................. 12 Methods ............................................................................................................................ 14 2.1 Search strategy ........................................................................................................... 14 Table 2: PICO table .......................................................................................................... 14 2.1.1 Databases and criteria ......................................................................................... 14 Results .............................................................................................................................. 16 3.1 Search results and included articles ........................................................................... 16 Table 3: Cochrane Library (04.01.2019) search results ................................................... 16 Table 4: PubMed (04.01.2019) search results: ................................................................. 16 Table 5: Review articles ................................................................................................... 17 Table 6: Meta-Analyses ................................................................................................... 18 lncRNAs associated with cardiovascular disease ............................................................. 20 4.1.1 MALAT1 ............................................................................................................. 21 4.1.2 MIAT ................................................................................................................... 22 4.1.3 ANRIL / CDKN2B-AS1 ....................................................................................... 23 4.1.4 LIPCAR .............................................................................................................. 25