........................................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................................................... v LIST OF ORIGINAL PUBLICATIONS ......................................................................................... vii ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................................. ix LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................... xiv LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................................ xvi CHAPTER 1 ........................................................................................................................................ 1 General introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1 The pathophysiology of atherosclerosis ...................................................................................................... 2 Cell proliferation in atherosclerosis .............................................................................................................. 4 TGFβ and VSMCs proliferation in atherosclerosis ................................................................................... 5 The genetics of CAD .............................................................................................................................................. 7 9p21.3 CAD risk locus as the first hit of GWAS ......................................................................................... 9 Mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (mROS) and coronary atherosclerosis ...................... 11 Rationale ................................................................................................................................................................ 12 Research objectives and introduction to manuscripts ....................................................................... 13 CHAPTER 2 ................................................................................................................................................ 20 Abstract ...................................................................................................................................................... 2