Surfaces useful for cell culture comprise a support to which is bound a CAR material, and, bound to the CAR material, collagen VI or a biologically active fragment or variant thereof and, optionally, one or more other ECM proteins (or fragments or variants thereof) such as elastin, fibronectin, vitronectin, tenascin, laminin, entactin, aggrecan, decorin, collagen I, collagen III, and collagen IV. Also, optionally present on the surface is one or more polycationic polymers, such as poly-D-lysine or poly-D-ornithine. This surface is used in cell culture to promote cell attachment, survival, and/or proliferation of a number of different cell types such as (a) liver cells (e.g., HepG2 tumor cells, and a newly discovered line of rat liver epithelial stem cells) (b) osteoblasts, such as the murine cell line MC3T3 cell line and (c) primary bone marrow cells. Kits comprising the surfaces and additional reagents are also disclosed.