Background & Aim: Radiation is an essential modality in the management of cancer therapy but its acute and chronic side effects on the normal organs limit the helpfulness of the radiotherapy. The aim of current study was to investigate the effect of dose dependent whole body radiation exposure on amount of 8-OHdG and total antioxidant capacity in the male Wistar rat's plasma. It was also planned to elucidate whether ginger extract rescue the deleterious effects of different doses of radiation in rat kidney.

Materials & Methods: Male Wistar rats were exposed to three doses (2, 4, and 8Gy) of γ- ray with or without 10 days pretreatment of ginger extract.

Results: After 10 days of whole body γ- ray exposure, the results revealed significant increases of 8-OHdG and significantly decreases of total antioxidant capacity in radiation groups (4Gy and 8Gy) compared to the control groups. It was no significant differences among ginger extract pretreatment groups and control group.

Conclusion: These findings indicate that whole body exposure to radiation induces kidney damage by oxidative DNA damage, and that these effects can be alleviated using ginger pretreatment as an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent.