Designing and manufacturing of appropriate scaffold materials for a particular application are of a key importance in tissue engineering. The fundamental are such properties of scaffolds as biocompatibility, adequate degradation time, appropriate biodegradation rate (not too fast in a first stage of contact with cells and tissues) and proper porous microstructure.
The polymer material used in this study was synthesized with the use of low-toxic zirconium compound, instead of tin compounds, which are commercially used in manufacturing of implant materials from aliphatic polyesters. The material was studied in vitro in order to check its biocompatibility. The results of tests of viability of human osteoblast line (Saos2) clearly show that the polymer obtained with the use of zirconium is much more biocompatible than that synthesized with the tin compound. Several types of porous polymer materials were obtained via solvent casting / particulate leaching technique, using various porogens. A very high open porosity (more than 85%) and different size and distribution of pores were achieved. The degradation of scaffolds as a function of incubation time in PBS at 37^oC was analyzed by FTIR, SEM and XPS. Viscosity and measurements of relative weight were also made. The results of biological, textural, physico-chemical properties of obtained materials, regarding their behaviour in conditions simulating biological environment show that they could be used as scaffolds for tissue engineering of cartilage and bone.