The transcription factor CUTL1 is associated with proliferation and prognosis in malignant melanoma.

The transcription factor CUTL1 (CCAAT displacement protein 1) has been reported to participate in the proliferation of diverse types of cancer. In the present study, we investigated the potential involvement of CUTL1 in the proliferation of malignant melanoma. We found that CUTL1 expression was upregulated in malignant melanoma tissues and cell lines, and CUTL1 expression was selected as a prognostic predictor for malignant melanoma patients by both univariate and multivariate analysis. Knockdown of CUTL1 by short hairpin RNA significantly reduced the colony-forming ability of malignant melanoma cells in vitro and reduced tumor growth in vivo, whereas forced overexpression of CUTL1 produced the opposite results. Consistently, cell cycle progression was impaired upon downregulation of CUTL1 and enhanced when CUTL1 was upregulated. Additional experiments suggested that CUTL1 may regulate the proliferation of malignant melanoma by modulating the expression of cell cycle-related proteins.