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Previously we demonstrated that alginate composition has a significant effect on the growth of encapsulated βTC3 cells and consequently on the overall metabolic and secretory activities of the encapsulated cultures. Based on these results we postulated that the mechanical properties of alginate were not responsible for the observed effects but rather, changes in the strength of the alginate gel network caused by changes in the number of alginate strands held together in the “egg-box” model are responsible for the observed effects. In this study we address this hypothesis with a series of experiments in which the strength of this interaction is manipulated by varying the calcium concentration either at the time of gelation or during culture maintenance. Our data show that increasing the concentration of the CaCl₂ solution used at the time of gelation, thus increasing the strength of the alginate gel network, impedes the …