Reply to comment on ‘3D melt electrowritten MXene-reinforced scaffolds for tissue engineering applications’

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Abstract
Yang et al comment on our article by Zahrabi et al (2025 Biofabrication 17 045011 10.1088/1758-5090/adf803) titled ‘3D melt electrowritten MXene-reinforced scaffolds for tissue engineering applications’ reporting the first demonstration of melt electrowritten (MEW) MXene/PCL scaffolds and their pro-osteogenic cellular response without exogenous growth factors. Here, we respond by clarifying MXene’s role during MEW processing and its contribution to tissue scaffold properties by defining future research directions. Importantly, the MXene within the PCL scaffolds does not exhibit high electrical conductivity as pristine 2D MXene films do, since the investigated loadings are below the electrical percolation threshold. Therefore, bulk conductivity is not expected to dominate scaffold behavior. Instead, we attribute improved print resolution and stability to MXene-enabled interfacial and thermal effects that can stabilize the MEW jet and enhance filament definition. In addition, favorable interactions between MXene surface terminations and PCL strengthen interfacial adhesion and influence crystallization and degradation kinetics. We further discuss the surface functionalization strategies (e.g. APTES functionalization) that can improve MXene–polymer compatibility and may reduce oxidation susceptibility. Building on these points, we envision next steps including (i) investigation of osteoinductive signaling pathways mechanism, (ii) complementary in vivo assessment in standard bone-defect models, (iii) fabrication of scalable structures by the development of hybrid manufacturing routes combining with MEW such as extrusion/hydrogel casting or electrospinning, and (iv) AI-guided optimization using existing material composition and process–structure models as a design constraint.

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