Bovine serum albumin (BSA) loaded calcium alginate microparticles (MPs) produced in this study by a w/o emulsification and external gelation method exhibited spherical and fairly smooth and porous morphology with 1.052 +/- 0.057 mu m modal particle size. The high permeability of the calcium alginate hydrogel lead to a potent burst effect and too fast protein release. To overcome these problems, MPs were coated with polycations, such as chitosan, poly-L-lysine and DEAE-dextran. Our results demonstrated that coated MPs showed slower release and were able to significantly reduce the release of BSA in the first hour. Therefore, this method can be applied to prepare coated alginate MPs which could be an optimal system for the controlled release of biotherapeutic molecules. Nevertheless, further studies are needed to optimize delivery properties which could provide a sustained release of proteins.