Estimates of parameters of the mathematical model fitted to the data from the adoptive transfer experiments.

In different experiments, , , or effector or memory CD8 T cells were transferred resulting in the shown average effector to target ratio , average percentage or the total number of transferred cells in spleens of the recipient mice. We estimated the death rate of peptide-pulsed targets due to killing by effector () or memory () CD8 T cells for different numbers of CD8 T cells transferred. Since the first measurements in these experimental data were taken 1 hour after transfer of target cells, we obtained unbound confidence intervals for the parameters and that determine the rate of recruitment of target cells from the blood to the spleen and elsewhere, respectively. Interestingly, to properly describe these data we require the preparation-induced cell death rate that we have previously postulated to exist [22], although in these experiments this rate was smaller than that during acute LCMV infection (see Table 2 in Supporting Information). Note that in these experiments the effector to target ratio changes over 100 fold (from 0.1 to over 10).