Acute kidney injury(AKI)is common in clinical practice,and the prognosis is so poor that needing early intervention,but now clinical diagnosis often depends on the functional indicators,such as serum creatinine (SCr) determination,however,due to the detection technology limitations,abnormal SCr appears much late,and the results may have some deviations,which is unfavorable about timely diagnosis and intervention of AKI,so it is urgent for a clear biomarker of early kidney damage.In recent years,scholars have been looking for the early biological markers of AKI, gradually finding some potentially useful indicators,such as neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin(NGAL),kidney injury molecule-1(KIM-1),interleukin 18(IL-18),cystatin C(Cys C),N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase(NAG), liver fatty acid binding protein(L-FABP)and so on.NGAL as an early biomarker of AKI attracts much attention.Some studies show that NGAL also play an important role in protecting kidney inflammation and tumorigenesis,but the specific mechanism has not been fully understood yet.This review will discuss the protective role of NGAL in the occurrence of AKI and the related mechanisms.%急性肾损伤（AKI）在临床上较为常见，且预后较差，需及早干预，但是目前临床上常用的诊断方法主要依赖于功能性指标，如血清肌酐（SCr）检测。然而由于检测技术的局限，SCr异常出现较晚，且其检测结果亦有可能出现一定的偏差，这对于临床上及时诊断及干预AKI非常不利。因此迫切需要一种能明确早期肾脏损伤的生物标志物。近年来，许多学者在寻找早期AKI的生物学标记物方面做了一定的探索，逐渐发现一些有潜在应用价值的指标，如中性粒细胞明胶酶相关脂质运载蛋白（NGAL）、肾损伤分子-1（KIM-1）、白细胞介素-18（IL-18）、半胱氨酸蛋白酶抑制剂 C （Cys C）、N-乙酰-β-D-氨基葡萄糖苷酶（NAG）、肝脏脂肪酸结合蛋白（L-FABP）等，其中NGAL作为早期AKI生物标志物的研究倍受关注。一些研究显示NGAL在肾脏保护、炎症反应、肿瘤发生等方面亦发挥重要作用，但其具体作用机制目前尚未完全阐明。文章仅就NGAL在AKI发生过程中所发挥的保护作用及其参与机制做相关综述。
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