Hydrogel is a material that can absorb large amount of water. It has been use in various applications such as in wound dressing, drug delivery, agriculture and sanitary pads. In this study, the cellulose – based hydrogels were prepared from carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) by crosslinking with polyethylene glycol diglycidyl ether (PEGDE). The effect of PEGDE content from 0.1 – 0.5 g/g of CMC on the properties of hydrogels was investigated. The results showed that increasing PEGDE content led to an increase in crosslinking degree which enhanced the physical strength of the hydrogels. The maximum water absorbency of the hydrogels was obtained when using PEGDE at 0.3 g/g of CMC. The enzyme degradability of hydrogels was found to be between 28 – 62 %. The hydrogel exhibited protein adsorption and release properties which depended on protein molecular size and crosslinking degree of the hydrogels.