Forced expression of wild-type but not mutant FTO significantly enhanced cell proliferation, increased the colony-forming capacity and promoted the transition of cells from G1 to S phase of the cell cycle in the two t(8;21) AML cell lines; conversely, when the expression or activity of FTO was inhibited by shRNA or the FTO inhibitor FB23-2, respectively, the opposite phenomena were observed (Fig. 3A–D and Additional file 1: Fig. S3A–B). Here, FTO is linked to acute myeloid leukemia.