EPO and anemia: Anemia occurs in 34–94.3% CKD patients, mainly due to decreased renal erythropoietin, iron, folic acid, or vitamin B12 deficiency, poor erythrocyte survival, and blood loss during dialysis (Tajbakhsh et al., 2013; Tajalli et al., 2021; Gluba-Brzozka et al., 2020).