A significant reduction (p < 0.01) of Young's modulus was observed when 55 kPa compressive stress was applied to the hydrogels containing EGTA-loaded vesicles, consistent with the previous results that showed a gel-to-solution transition (Figure ). In contrast, when compressive stress was applied to the hydrogels that did not include vesicles or that included vesicles without EGTA, Young's modulus did not decrease. It was also observed that without the compression, the Young's modulus of the hydrogels that contained vesicles (with or without EGTA) was lower than that of the hydrogel without vesicles. This is probably because vesicle-embedded hydrogels contain approximately 18.6% of their volume with liquid-loaded vesicles, whereas hydrogels without vesicles possess alginate-crosslinked networks in these regions.