{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,6]],"date-time":"2025-11-06T18:40:10Z","timestamp":1762454410440,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":52,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,6]],"date-time":"2025-11-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1762387200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"The National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["U21A20384 and 82072293"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["U21A20384 and 82072293"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"The National Key Research and Development Program of China","award":["2021YFC2300103"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021YFC2300103"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004761","name":"The Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province, China","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["2022JJ30692"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2022JJ30692"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004761","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS One"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a leading cause of vision loss in individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and is influenced by genetic factors. We investigated the association between the erythropoietin (EPO) gene polymorphism (rs1617640 C\u2009&gt;\u2009T\/G) and DR risk in a Punjabi Pakistani cohort of adults with T2DM. In a case\u2013control design, 573 T2DM patients (294 with DR, 279 controls without retinopathy, CDR) were genotyped by ARMS-PCR. The protective CC genotype was significantly more frequent in controls (96.77%) than in cases (30.61%) and was associated with markedly reduced DR risk (OR = 68; 95% CI 33.468\u2013138.162; p\u2009&lt;\u20090.001). Conversely, the GG and TT genotypes were absent in controls but present in DR patients (27.55% and 21.43%, respectively) and were strongly associated with increased DR risk (p\u2009&lt;\u20090.001). Allele-level analysis mirrored genotype findings: the C allele predominated in controls (98.39%) but was significantly less frequent in cases (39%), while G and T alleles were enriched among DR patients (p\u2009&lt;\u20090.001). Together, genotype- and allele-based results indicate that the rs1617640 C variant is protective against DR in this Punjabi T2DM population, whereas G and T variants increase DR susceptibility.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0336014","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,6]],"date-time":"2025-11-06T18:36:01Z","timestamp":1762454161000},"page":"e0336014","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Association of erythropoietin gene polymorphism (rs1617640 C&gt;T\/G) with diabetic retinopathy in Type 2 diabetes mellitus patients of Punjabi population in Pakistan"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"20","author":[{"given":"Cyrollah","family":"Disoma","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Aqsa","family":"Malik","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ayesha","family":"Nisar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Inam","family":"Ullah","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sikandar","family":"Hayat","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Abdul","family":"Qadeer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sardar 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