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Updated: Feb 9, 2026

Local Anesthetic Thoracoscopy for Undiagnosed Pleural Effusion
Published on: November 10, 2023
Lethal (2) giant larvae regulates pleural mesothelial cell polarity in pleural fibrosis
Lin-Jie Song1, Li-Ling Zhou1, Meng Wang2
1Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430022, China.
Abstract:
Pleural fibrosis is barely reversible and the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Pleural mesothelial cells (PMCs) which have apical-basal polarity play a key role in pleural fibrosis. Loss of cell polarity is involved in the development of fibrotic diseases. Partition defective protein (PAR) complex is a key regulator of cell polarity. However, changes of PMC polarity and PAR complex in pleural fibrosis are still unknown. In this study, we observed that PMC polarity was lost in fibrotic pleura. Next we found increased Lethal (2) giant larvae (Lgl) bound with aPKC and PAR-6B competing against PAR-3A in PAR complex, which led to cell polarity loss. Then we demonstrated that Lgl1 siRNA prevented cell polarity loss in PMCs, and Lgl1 conditional knockout (ER-Cre+/-Lgl1flox/flox) attenuated pleural fibrosis in a mouse model. Our data indicated that Lgl1 regulates cell polarity of PMCs, inhibition of Lgl1 and maintenance of cell polarity in PMCs could be a potential therapeutic treatment approach for pleural fibrosis.
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