Enrichment of peripheral blood RBC chimerism compared with WBC chimerism in the blood, hematopoietic organs, and stem cells. (A) In the individual mice, a striking enrichment of peripheral blood RBC versus WBC chimerism occurred. The RBC chimerism (expressed as percentage of donor Hb, x-axis) versus WBC chimerism (y-axis) for each of the mice that received transplants is shown (▴). Control sickle (0% donor Hb) or eGFP (100% donor Hb) are shown (•). (B) Enrichment of peripheral RBC chimerism (x-axis) compared with WBC chimerism (y-axis) in the bone marrow (▴) and spleen (▴) occurred in mice that received transplants. Control sickle mice that did not receive transplants (0% donor Hb) or eGFP mice (100% donor Hb) are shown as ▵ (bone marrow) and • (spleen). (C) Enrichment of peripheral RBC chimerism (x-axis) compared with stem cell chimerism (y-axis) in the bone marrow (▴) and spleen (▴) also occurred in the mice that received transplants. The stem cell compartment was defined as those bone marrow cells or splenocytes that were Sca-1⁺/c-kit⁺/PI^-/lineage^-. The percentage of these stem cells that were either donor derived (eGFP⁺/CD45.1^-) or recipient derived (eGFP^-/CD45.1⁺) was then determined. Control sickle mice that did not receive transplants (0% donor Hb) or eGFP mice (100% donor Hb) are shown as ▵ (bone marrow) and • (spleen). (D) A higher percentage of splenic stem cells than bone marrow stem cells were donor derived in the chimeric mice. Stem cells were defined as described in panel C. The percentage of stem cells that were donor in the bone marrow (x-axis) versus spleen (y-axis) was plotted (•). The line depicts the theoretical 1:1 ratio of bone marrow to spleen stem cells.