Figure 3.

The effects of long and short telomeres. (A) Long telomeres are found in some cancer types (i.e. lung adenocarcinoma, familial cutaneous malignant melanoma, endometrial cancer, glioma, etc). They result in the maintenance of genomic instability, although there is increasing evidence that the price of long telomeres is an increased risk of melanoma and glioma. The complete long telomere syndrome spectrum remains incompletely understood. (B) Short telomeres result in DNA damage response, loss of protective mechanisms, limited replication potential, and cellular senescence. When present they result in an increased risk of degenerative diseases like coronary heart disease, diabetes mellitus type I, interstitial lung diseases, etc. In short telomere syndromes, different phenotypes are revealed depending on age. The cancer spectrum is notably different when compared to long telomere syndromes and usually involves squamous cell and hematologic malignancies. In general, short telomere syndrome phenotypes can be subclassified in infant, pediatric, and adult onset as shown. “Created with Biorender.com”.