Figure 6. The distribution of cells of each maturational state and their degree of functionality.

The majority of naïve CD8 T cells (TN) do not express any cytokines (degree of functionality 0) or are mono-functional, while effector memory cells (TEM) are the most polyfunctional of the subsets (peaking at degree 5). Short-lived effector (TEF) cells have lower polyfunctionality (peaking at degree 4), and central memory (TCM) populations tend to have a constant level of polyfunctionality from degree1 through degree 7. The area under the curve for each cell subset integrates to one. The y-axis is transformed by a hyperbolic-arcsine to facilitate visualization of differences between subsets at higher degrees of polyfunctionality.