**Meet the editor**

Dr. Elena Aikawa received her medical degree from the First Moscow Medical Institute, Moscow, Russia in 1984, and obtained a Ph.D. degree in pathology from Institute of Biophysics, Moscow in 1989. She joined Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), Boston in 1991. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Medicine at BWH and Harvard Medical School. She also is a Director of

Vascular Biology Program at the Center for Interdisciplinary Sciences and a Principal Investigator at the Center for Excellence in Cardiovascular Research at BWH. Her research focuses on the pathogenesis of valvular heart disease and the mechanisms of cardiovascular calcification. She is a member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Working Group on Calcific Aortic Valve Stenosis and of the editorial boards of PLoS ONE, Journal of Extracellular Vesicles, and Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. Her work in cardiovascular research is recognized worldwide, as reflected by numerous invited lectures and publications.

Contents

**Preface IX**

**Section 1 Biology and Function of Normal Aortic Valve 1**

Chapter 2 **Anatomy and Function of Normal Aortic Valvular Complex 31**

Chapter 3 **Developmental Pathways in CAVD 59**

Erik Fung and Masanori Aikawa

Claudia Goettsch and Elena Aikawa

**Valve Disease 105**

**Valve Disease 149**

Chapter 1 **Extracellular Matrix Organization, Structure, and Function 3**

Mihaela Ispas and Razvan Constantin Serban

**Section 2 Mechanisms of Calcific Aortic Valve Disease 57**

Elaine E. Wirrig and Katherine E. Yutzey

Chapter 4 **Notch Signaling in Congenital and Acquired Aortic**

Chapter 5 **Role of MicroRNAs in Cardiovascular Calcification 123**

**Section 3 Genetics, Proteomics and Metabolomics of Calcific Aortic**

Chapter 6 **Proteomics and Metabolomics in Aortic Stenosis: Studying**

L. Mourino-Alvarez, C.M. Laborde and M.G. Barderas

**Healthy Valves for a Better Understanding of the Disease 151**

Dena Wiltz, C. Alexander Arevalos, Liezl R. Balaoing, Alicia A. Blancas, Matthew C. Sapp, Xing Zhang and K. Jane Grande-Allen

Ioan Tilea, Horatiu Suciu, Brindusa Tilea, Cristina Maria Tatar,
