For a succesful culture, cells need a suitable substrate. They grow poorly on plastic surfaces which is why  scientists initially coat these surfaces with a growth-promoting matrix. Many scientists use a
gelatinous protein mixture from mouse tumor cells that is commercially available as Corning Matrigel Matrix for 2D and 3D cell cultures. However, this extract can differ from batch to batch, which means
that the standardisability of the investigations and the comparability of the results is questionable. In addition, material of animal origin is unsuitable for therapeutic cells. Moreover, does laminin lead
to comparatively low adhesion strength of neural precursor cells, as the scientists have written in their current publication.

The Dresden researcher group has used defined chemical components as a matrix and tested the growth of six different cell types, among other things primary mesenchymal stromal cells and neural precursor cells.

The team combined sulfated glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), which are acid polysaccharides found in the extracellular matrix of connective tissue, with poly(ethylene glycol) conjugated peptides. Four different types of glycosaminoglycans were tested: heparin, heparan, dermatan and chondroitin which were mixed with poly(ethylene glycol) peptides.

It was shown that all GAG biomatrices show an increased differentiation efficiency of neuronal precursor cells, but heparin and heparan are 20 times better than laminin. On chondroitin and dermatan, however, the mesenchymal stromal cells grew better.

The researchers have described their development in the journal Advanced Materials:
Wieduwild, R., Wetzel, R., Husman, D., Bauer, S., El-Sayed, I., Duin, S., Murawala, P., Curious Thomas, A., Wobus, M., Bornhäuser M. & Zhang, Y (2018). Coacervation-mediated Combinatorial Synthesis of Biomatrices for Stem Cell Culture and Directed Differentiation. Advanced Materials 1706100, DOI: 10.1002/adma.201706100.

Sources:
http://www.bcube-dresden.de/research-groups/zhang/publications/
http://www.bionity.com/de/news/1154872/zellkultur-fabrik-en-miniature.html?WT.mc_id=ca0264
http://flexikon.doccheck.com/de/Glykosaminoglykan
Hughes, C. S., Postovit, L. M. & Lajoie, G. A. (2010). Matrigel: a complex protein mixture required for optimal growth of cell culture. Proteomics. 2010 May;10(9):1886-90. doi: 10.1002/pmic.200900758.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20162561
https://www.corning.com/emea/de/products/life-sciences/products/surfaces/matrigel-matrix.html