Mammalian cell gene expression: protein glycosylation

Considerable advances have been made in identifying the factors determining the glycosylation pattern of glycoproteins secreted by mammalian cells. This has allowed a greater appreciation of the way in which recombinant proteins may be glycosylated after expression in a heterologous system. The studies reviewed herein extend the wider view that glycosylation of native and recombinant proteins is a complex event dependent on the protein moiety, the host cell, and also the environment in which transfected cells are cultured. The details of the way in which these factors combine to establish the glycosylation pattern of a secreted protein are now beginning to be unravelled.