Alginate – chitosan – alginate multilayer hydrogel encapsulation systems were investigated for

encapsulation of chondrocytes. Hydrogel is crosslinked due to ionic interaction between cationic

chitosan and anionic alginate, and additionally by calcium ions. Two types of chitosan with

molecular weight were investigated. Cells were encapsulated in two shape microcapsules, microbeads with diameter size 300 – 400 and 500 - 600 µm and fibres with diameter 500 - 600 µm. The

work provides a detailed examination of the impact of the microencapsulation process on the growth

of cells. The viability of chondrocytes can be influenced by the size of produced microcapsules,

while the shape of microcapsules has no important significance on cell viability. The applied

encapsulation methods do not contain harmful stages and create conducive conditions for cell

growth. A possible application area of the developed system is dressing and regeneration of

damaged joint cartilage.