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For tissue engineering applications, scaffolds should be porous to enable rapid nutrient and oxygen transfer while providing a three-dimensional (3D) microenvironment for the encapsulated cells. This dual characteristic can be achieved by fabrication of porous hydrogels that contain encapsulated cells. In this work, we developed a simple method that allows cell encapsulation and pore generation inside alginate hydrogels simultaneously. Gelatin beads of 150–300 µm diameter were used as a sacrificial porogen for generating pores within cell-laden hydrogels. Gelation of gelatin at low temperature (4 C) was used to form beads without chemical crosslinking and their subsequent dissolution after cell encapsulation led to generation of pores within cell-laden hydrogels. The pore size and porosity of the scaffolds were controlled by the gelatin bead size and their volume ratio, respectively. Fabricated hydrogels were …