Cutaneous melanoma is a tumor with high metastatic potential, but the mechanisms leading to progression are still not fully understood. In this study, we examined whether p16, p27, p53, p73 and Nup88 proteins were involved in the progression from primary to metastatic melanomas by immunocytochemistry and Western blotting in eleven melanoma cell lines from five matched primary and metastatic melanomas. We demonstrated that the primary and metastatic melanomas expressed differently p16, p27, p73 and Nup88 proteins. When expressed in the primary melanoma cells p16 and p27 were lost or reduced in almost all the metastatic melanoma cell lines. In contrast, p73 and Nup88 were expressed in most of the tested melanoma cell lines and were increased in the metastatic melanomas. p53 was expressed at the same level in both the primary and metastatic melanoma cells. These data suggest that a reduced expression of p16 and p27 and an enhanced expression of p73 and Nup88 might play an important role in the progression of melanoma from primary tumor to metastasis.

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