Acute mesenteric ischemia (AMI) is a critical clinical emergency with an extremely high mortality rate. Early diagnosis and prognosis assessment are essential for improving patient outcomes. This article reviews the research progress on various biomarkers in the diagnosis and prognostic evaluation of AMI. Biomarkers such as white blood cell count, C-reactive protein and procalcitonin are convenient and low-cost tests suitable for initial screening, but they have limited specificity. α-glutathione S-transferase (α-GST), intestinal fatty acid-binding protein (I-FABP) and others have advantages in specificity and are suitable for patients requiring differential diagnosis. In addition, combined inflammatory indices, including the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, are easily obtainable and have good potential for clinical application. Systemic scoring systems, such as the acute physiology and chronic health evaluation Ⅱ (APACHE Ⅱ) and sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA), are applicable to patients with multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. Emerging biomarkers, including prostaglandin E-major urinary metabolite (PGE-MUM) and hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF-1α), have certain potential value but require further validation. At present, various biomarkers are limited by small sample sizes and a lack of prospective studies. Large-scale, multi-center, high-quality studies are urgently needed to further validate the clinical application value of multiple biomarkers.