Objective To investigate the effect of microRNA-194 (miR-194) on cell proliferation and apoptosis in melanoma cells and potential underlying mechanism. Methods Real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) was utilized to measure miR-194 in normal primary human skin melanocytes (PIG1) and five kinds of malignant melanoma cells (A375, SK-MEL-1, SK-MEL-2, SK-MEL-5 and SK-MEL-28). A375 melanoma cells were transfected with miR-194 mimics or negative control plasmid via lipofectamine 2000 system. The proliferation capability was measured by MTT assay, and apoptosis rate was determined by flow cytometry. Expressions of Cyclin D1 and cleaved Caspase-3 were detected by Western blot. Results The miR-194 level among A375, SK-MEL-1, SK-MEL-2, SK-MEL-5 and SK-MEL-28 was significantly lower than that in PIG1, and fold of PIG1 was (0.18 ±0.03), (0.25 ±0.05), (0.37 ±0.03), (0.39 ±0.04), and (0.45 ±0.03) (p < 0.05), respectively. OD values at 490 nm on day 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 post transfection in the miR-194 mimics group vs the negative control group were (0.18 ±0.02) vs (0.19 ±0.03) (p > 0.05), (0.27 ±0.02) vs (0.29 ±0.03) (p > 0.05), (0.42 ±0.08) vs (0.45 ±0.07) ( > 0.05), (0.63 ±0.09) vs (1.17 ±0.12) (p <0.05), (1.05 ±0.15) vs (2.15 ±0.21) (p < 0.05) and (1.87 ±0.23) vs (3.18 ±0.27) (p < 0.05), respectively. The apoptosis rate in the miR-194 mimics group vs the negative control group was 24.2% vs 9.3% (p < 0.05).Compared with the negative control group, the miR-194 mimics group had (0.36 ±0.04)-fold change and (3.2±0.28) -fold change in Cyclin D1 and cleaved Caspase-3, respectively (p < 0.05). Conclusions There is low expression of miR-194 in melanoma cells. Up-regulation of miR-194 can promote apoptosis rate and inhibit proliferation of melanoma cells by down -regulation of Cyclin D1 protein and up -regulation of cleaved Caspase-3 protein.