Our study revealed that the expression of Tim-3 on splenic CD8+ T cells (Fig. 1a, e), splenic CD4+ T cells (Fig. 1c, g), circulatory CD8+ T cells (Fig. 3a) and circulatory CD4+ T cells (Fig. 3b) cells in mice all increased, and the increase of Tim-3 on splenic CD8+ T cells, splenic CD4+ T cells, and circulatory CD4+ T cells was associated with a reduction in the proportion of these cells (Fig. 1i, m, k, o and Additional file 1: Figure S3a, c) during infection periods. Here, CD4 is linked to infection.