Davidović S, et al. - In patients with T2DM, researchers studied the possible impact of serum concentrations of erythropoietin (EPO) on the development of diabetic retinopathy. Ninety patients examined at the University Eye Clinic of the Clinical Center of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia, were included. The first group consisted of 60 diabetes mellitus patients with diabetic retinopathy for 10 years or more, and the second group (control group) consisted of 30 healthy people. According to this cross-sectional study, significantly elevated EPO serum concentration in advanced DR stages and a positive association between EPO serum concentration and clinical proliferative diabetic retinopathy stages indicate that EPO is a significant growth factor in the blood that plays an important role in retinal ischemia and angiogenesis in diabetic retinopathy, particularly in the proliferative stage of this disease.