The phrase "a supportive function for" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when describing a role or purpose that provides assistance or encouragement in a particular context.
Example: "The committee serves a supportive function for the development of community programs."
Alternatives: "an assisting role in" or "a facilitative purpose for".
In the bone marrow, MSCs have a supportive function for the haematopoietic system and provide a niche for haematopoietic progenitor cells to mature.
Astrocytes have a supportive function for neurons in the central nervous system: Neurons harbor a strong aerobic metabolism, while astrocytes primarily rely on the ATP derived from glycolysis with lactate extrusion as the end point (Dienel & Hertz, 2001; Bolaños et al., 2010).
A communication in the Kathmandu University Medical Journal suggested that these committees have a supportive function for the DDA: "In developing countries like Nepal, where the pharmacovigilance programs are in its primitive stage, the DTC has immense responsibility in ensuring drug safety.
The third party can serve an important supportive function for the older patient (Silliman 1989; Greene and Adelman 2003).
Economic, labour, and social policies, again, have a supportive function.
Illustrated educational methods have a supportive function in learning factual knowledge.
Governments certainly continue to play a part — but increasingly, it is a supportive function centered on funding.
Therefore, these cells have supportive function for hematopoiesis.
Indeed, the supportive function for HSCs in the BM niche and the immunomodulatory capacities of MSCs suggest their potential use for cell therapy.
Rehme et al. (2010) have shown that increases in contralesional M1 activity over the first 10 days after stroke correlate with the amount of spontaneous motor improvement in initially more impaired patients suggesting a supportive role for recovery of function in the very early phase after stroke.
Although a rigid endoskeleton performs obvious body supportive functions for land-living vertebrates, it is doubtful that bone offered any such mechanical advantage to the teleost (bony fish) in which it first appeared, for in a supporting aquatic environment great structural rigidity is not essential for maintaining body configuration.
