Will glycosylation affect the biological activity of recombinant protein?

In most cases, the glycosylation of growth factors or cytokines will not directly affect the binding between the protein and the receptor. Therefore, in vitro studies, the biological activity of recombinant growth factors or cytokines will not be significantly affected by glycosylation. However, glycosylated proteins are generally more tolerant to protease degradation, so their half-life in vivo is longer than that of non-glycosylated homologous proteins. Therefore, in vivo research, the recombinant protein produced by mammalian expression system or insect expression system may be better than the homologous recombinant protein produced in Escherichia coli.