Exploring systemic erythropoietin in diabetic retinopathy: Longitudinal associations and biomarker potential in the LANDMark cohort

Ingrid A Wise, Siska Dupont Berry, Alisa McKenzie, Jason C Steel, Katie Edwards, Nathan Efron, Christopher J Layton and Charmaine A Ramlogan-Steel

PLOS ONE, 2026, vol. 21, issue 9, 1-15

Abstract: Aims: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic, multifactorial disease with systemic effects, demanding ongoing clinical vigilance and risk-reduction strategies. Among its most prevalent microvascular complications is diabetic retinopathy (DR), affecting 30–40% of individuals with DM and associated with sustained hyperglycaemia. This study investigates the role of erythropoietin (EPO), a glycoprotein primarily known for its role in erythropoiesis, in retinal pathology. Methods: Secondary analysis was conducted on 117 participants from the Australian cohort of the LANDMark study, examining the relationship between systemic EPO levels and DR severity, as measured by the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) Severity Scale. Results: Significant positive correlations were observed between serum EPO and DR severity at both baseline and the four-year follow-up (baseline: ρ = 0.212, p = 0.025; four-year ρ = 0.205, p = 0.030). Ordinal regression indicated that both baseline and four-year EPO levels were associated with higher DR severity at the four-year follow-up (baseline: log-odds coefficient = 2.258, OR ≈ 9.57, p

Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0358455 (text/html)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id= ... 58455&type=printable (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0358455

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0358455

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in PLOS ONE from Public Library of Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by plosone ().