Abstract: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a clinical syndrome, which causes rapid decline in renal function for a variety of reasons, and results in decreased nitrogen metabolism (urea and creatinine) and/or decreased urine output. It is involved in clinical multidisciplinary problems. Because of the high morbidity and mortality of acute renal injury,it is the world public health problem that clinicians pay close attention to at present. A large number of experiment data showed that activation of hypoxia inducible factors (HIFs) could improve AKI. HIFs are expressed in both renal tubules and glomeruli in hypoxic/ischemic renal tissues. With the research on the pathogenesis of AKI, the special proteins, active chemicals and gene therapy related to HIF are expected to become effective means of AKI treatment. Studies on AKI model animals suggest that these methods protect the kidney by inhibiting inflammation, oxidative stress response, reducing cell apoptosis and necrosis, and preventing renal tubular epithelial cell injury. The purpose of this article is to summarize the research progress of hypoxia-inducible factor on the potential therapeutic effect on acute kidney injury.