Nucleated primitive erythroid cells are enriched in the fetal liver
| Primitive enucleated, % . | Primitive nucleated/enucleated . | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Blood . | Liver . | Liver/blood . | |
| 15 | 5.6 | 6.6 | 1.2 |
| 31 | 2.2 | 2.8 | 1.3 |
| 36 | 1.8 | 2.4 | 1.3 |
| 76 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 1.7 |
| Primitive enucleated, % . | Primitive nucleated/enucleated . | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Blood . | Liver . | Liver/blood . | |
| 15 | 5.6 | 6.6 | 1.2 |
| 31 | 2.2 | 2.8 | 1.3 |
| 36 | 1.8 | 2.4 | 1.3 |
| 76 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 1.7 |
Data from 4 litters of E15.5 fetuses, with progressively higher percentages of nucleated primitive erythroid cells (left column) are shown. For each litter, the ratio of nucleated to enucleated primitive erythroid cells was determined in paired fetal blood and liver samples (middle 2 columns) using ImageStream analysis. The ratio of nucleated to enucleated primitive erythroid cells was consistently higher in the liver compared with the bloodstream (right column, P ≤ .02), indicating that nucleated cells are preferentially retained in the liver.