Morphologically, HCT116 and FHC cells exhibited microscopic features of cell swelling and balloon-like bubbles emerging from plasma membrane following CDT infection, which were different from the shrinkage of apoptotic cells (Figure 2A).The previous report found that pyroptosis is characterized by large bubbles blown from the plasma membrane, increase of LDH release and annexin V and PI positive cells (Rogers et al., 2017). Here, ANXA5 is linked to infection.