An inactivating CYLD mutation promotes skin tumor progression by conferring enhanced proliferative, survival and angiogenic properties to epidermal cancer cells.

In this study, we demonstrate that the expression in tumorigenic epidermal cells of a catalytically inactive form of CYLD (CYLD(C/S)) that mimics the identified mutations of cyld in human tumors and competes with the endogenous CYLD results in enhanced cell proliferation and inhibition of apoptosis; it also stimulates cell migration and induces the expression of angiogenic factors, including vascular endothelial growth factor-A. Altogether, these characteristics indicate an increased oncogenicity of the tumorigenic epidermal CYLD(C/S) mutant cells in vitro. Moreover, we show the increase in malignancy of epidermal squamous cell carcinomas that express the CYLD(C/S) transgene in an in vivo xenograft model. Tumors carrying the mutated CYLD(C/S) exhibit a fast growth, are poorly differentiated and present a robust angiogenesis. CYLD(C/S) tumors are also characterized by their elevated proliferation rate and decreased apoptosis. In contrast with previous studies showing the development of benign tumors by mutations in the CYLD gene, here we provide evidence that the occurrence of mutations in the CYLD gene in tumorigenic epidermal cells (carrying previous mutations) increases the aggressiveness of carcinomas, mainly through enhancement of the expression of angiogenic factors, having therefore a key role in epidermal cancer malignancy.