Combined lung and liver transplantation for short telomere syndrome

Telomeres are DNA-protein structures located at the chromosome ends and terminating with an essential single-stranded 3'-overhang. Their role is to maintain genomic integrity by protecting chromosomes from degradation and illegitimate recombination. Telomeres progressively shorten during cell division because of the inability of DNA polymerase to replicate the 3'-end of chromosomes. Telomerase limits telomere attrition by synthesizing de novo telomere sequences at the end of chromosomes.