The Promising Biomarker for Multiple Clinical Situations

Biomarkers have achieved broad logical and clinical attention in diverse disciplines such as screening, diagnosis, prognosis, recurrence prediction and therapeutic monitoring of diseases in modern medicine. due to lack of direct access to the function of reproductive organs and their malfunction especially in women, most of data are received through application of sensitive and specific biomarkers. these biomarkers have been developed and validated over time. an ideal and specific biomarker should be non-invasive, easy to detect, inexpensive with acceptable precision and reliability and able to detect early onset of changes in associated organ. anti-mullerian hormone (amh), also known as mullerian inhibiting substance (mis) is a biomarker indicative of above features. amh, discovered in 1947 by alfred jost, is a dimeric glycoprotein member of tgf-β superfamily. it is known for its primary role in mullerian duct regression in embryonic genital tract. sertoli cells and granulosa cells are the main sources of amh production in male and female gonads, respectively. the amh secretion starts from 36 weeks of pregnancy in preantral and early antral follicles smaller than 4 mm. it reaches peak levels after puberty and steadily decreases until menopause. development of antral follicles leads to the decrease in amh and finally stops its secretion in follicles larger than 8 mm and atretic follicles. amh levels are stable during the menstrual cycle. however, its level declines during pregnancy due to placental inhibition of ovaries and increases rapidly after delivery