Glycosaminoglycan mimicking surfaces trigger distinct response of stem cells via fibronectin adsorption

Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are main building elements of the extracellular matrix where they act in synergism with proteins and are equally critical for the development, growth, function or survival of an organism[1]. GAGs are anionic linear polysaccharides made of repeating disaccharide units, whose negative charge is due to the presence of sulfate groups. These charge units have a crucial role in GAG interaction with proteins and therefore in key biochemical/signalling processes related to cell functionality and survival. In a previous work we have developed a platform that is based on self-assembled monolayers (SAM) and allow precise control on the surface exposed sulfonic groups (-SO3H)[2]. We proved that those surfaces are reliable tools to study GAGs interactions with proteins (basic fibroblast growth factor, FGF-2) or cells[2, 3]. Herein, we have used the same SAM platform to investigate the influence of sulfonic functional groups on the interactions with fibronectin and the impact of these interactions on the adhesion and morphology of human adipose derived stem cells (ASCs).