The present disclosure related to isolated laminin 521 methods for making recombinant laminin 521 host cells that express recombinant laminin 521 and compositions containing laminin 521. Laminin 521 can maintain stem cells in vitro pluripotency enable self renewal and enable single cell survival of human embryonic stem cells. When pluripotent human embryonic stem cells are cultured on plates coated with a matrix of recombinant laminin 521 (laminin 11) in the absence of differentiation inhibitors or feeder cells the embryonic stem cells proliferate and maintain their pluripotency. It has also been discovered that human recombinant laminin 521 (laminin 11) provides single cell survival of stem cells after complete dissociation into a single cell suspension. Useful cell culture mediums containing at most 3.9 ng/ml of beta fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) are also described herein.
