Will Streaming stop if request and response variables are read

[anuprai]

We have a API in which request and response streaming is enabled. We are also reading below variables using Assign Message policy for some conditions -

<AssignVariable>
     <Name>flow.request.payload</Name>
     <Ref>request.content</Ref>
</AssignVariable>
<AssignVariable>
     <Name>flow.response.payload</Name>
     <Ref>response.content</Ref>
</AssignVariable>

If we read these variables will the streaming stop and will it trigger buffering in the API proxy or these variable will be set to null and Streaming will continue?