Although, for most cases, pre-coating the culture plate is not necessary, coating the plate with 1X PBS, Poly-D-Lysine solution, or 10-100 mM CaCl₂ can improve the hydrogel attachment. Please check the following protocols for coating the culture plate:
Add the PBS, Poly-D-Lysine solution, or CaCl₂ solution to the culture plate for 30 min.
Remove the PBS, Poly-D-Lysine solution, or CaCl₂ solution, open the lid under the biosafety hood for 10-20 min before adding the hydrogel. The recommend volumes of PBS or CaCl₂ for different sizes of well plates are list in Table 1 below.
Table 1: Recommend volume of PBS, Poly-D-Lysine solution, CaCl₂ solution for pre-coating well plate