Acute renal failure (ARF) is a syndrome associated with high mortality rate in humans. ARF now known as acute kidney injury (AKI) represents a significant and devastating problem in clinical medicine. This work was performed on adult male albino rats to study the possible protective effects of ginger which is considered as one of the promising medicinal plants and N-acetylcystiene on acute tubular necrosis induced by glycerol. Sixty adult male Albino rats divided into 5 groups each were included in this study. Kidney tissue specimens were processed for histological study; hematoxylin and eosin (H & E), immunohistochemical staining for caspase3 and mRNA gene expression study by real time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) through the assessment of catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx1) genes. The renal CAT gene expression was found to be decreased in the glycerol group (affected group). Administration of ginger extract and N-acetylcystiene separately or combined before glycerol significantly increased the CAT and GPx1 gene expression. We concluded that the administration of oral ginger extract and N-acetylcystiene separately and combined had prophylactic role in ARF. Also the combination of both had synergistic effect.

Key words: Ginger, N-acetylcysteine, renal failure, glutathione peroxidase, catalase gene