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BackgroundThe concept of the gut-retinal axis proposed by previous scholars primarily focused on the relationship between intestinal microbiota and retinal diseases, and few further expanded the relationship between intestinal diseases and retinal diseases. To further substantiate the concept of the gut-retinal axis, we analyzed inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and diabetic retinopathy (DR) using Mendelian randomization (MR), and use mediation analysis to further explore the potential substances that influence this causal relationship.MethodsThe genome-wide association study’s (GWAS) summary statistics for genetic variations were utilized in a Mendelian randomization (MR) investigation. GWAS data on IBD (including ulcerative colitis (UC), Crohn’s disease (CD), and IBD) for non-Finnish Europeans (NFE) were sourced from published articles. In contrast, data on DR (including DR and diabetic maculopathy (DMP)) were obtained from FinnGen R9. The causal relationship has been investigated using inverse variance weighted (IVW), MR-Egger, and weighted median and sensitivity analysis was applied to verify the stability of the results. In addition, we applied mediation analysis to investigate whether circulating inflammatory proteins and plasma lipids played a mediating role, and calculated its effect ratio.ResultsThe causal relationship between IBD and DR was discovered by employing the inverse variance weighted (IVW) method and weighted median method. In forward MR, UC was significantly associated with lower risk of DR (IVW: OR=0.874; 95%CI= 0.835–0.916; P value= 1.28E-08) (Weighted median: OR=0.893; 95%CI= 0.837–0.954; P value= 7.40E-04). In reverse MR, it was shown that DR (IVW: OR=0.870; 95%CI= 0.828–0.914; P value= 2.79E-08)(Weighted median: OR=0.857; 95%CI= 0.801–0.916; P value= 6.40E-06) and DMP (IVW: OR=0.900; 95%CI= 0.865–0.937; P value= 3.34E-07)(Weighted median: OR=0.882; 95%CI= 0.841–0.924; P value= 1.82E-07) could reduce the risk of CD. What’s more, DR is associated with a lower risk of IBD according to genetic prediction (IVW: OR=0.922; 95%CI= 0.873–0.972; P value= 0.002) (Weighted median: OR=0.924; 95%CI= 0.861–0.992; P value= 0.029). Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21), phosphatidylcholine (PC), and triacylglycerol (TG) serve as mediators in these relationships.ConclusionsOur research offers novel insights and sources for investigating the gut-retina axis in the genetic relationship between IBD and DR. We discover four mediators and more about the association between the intestine and retinal disorders and provide more evidence for the gut-retinal axis theory.