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MXene is a recently emerged multifaceted two-dimensional (2D) material that is made up of surface-modified carbide, providing its flexibility and variable composition. They consist of layers of early transition metals (M), interleaved with n layers of carbon or nitrogen (denoted as X) and terminated with surface functional groups (denoted as T x /T z ) with a general formula of M n+1 X n T x , where n  = 1–3. In general, MXenes possess an exclusive combination of properties, which include, high electrical conductivity, good mechanical stability, and excellent optical properties. MXenes also exhibit good biological properties, with high surface area for drug loading/delivery, good hydrophilicity for biocompatibility, and other electronic-related properties for computed tomography (CT) scans and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Due to the attractive physicochemical and biocompatibility properties, the novel 2D materials have enticed an uprising research interest for application in biomedicine and biotechnology. Although some potential applications of MXenes in biomedicine have been explored recently, the types of MXene applied in the perspective of biomedical engineering and biomedicine are limited to a few, titanium carbide and tantalum carbide families of MXenes. This review paper aims to provide an overview of the structural organization of MXenes, different top-down and bottom-up approaches for synthesis of MXenes, whether they are fluorine-based or fluorine-free etching methods to produce biocompatible MXenes. MXenes can be further modified to enhance the biodegradability and reduce the cytotoxicity of the material for biosensing, cancer theranostics, drug delivery and bio-imaging applications. The antimicrobial activity of MXene and the mechanism of MXenes in damaging the cell membrane were also discussed. Some challenges for in vivo applications, pitfalls, and future outlooks for the deployment of MXene in biomedical devices were demystified. Overall, this review puts into perspective the current advancements and prospects of MXenes in realizing this 2D nanomaterial as a versatile biological tool.

Generating a tissue model mimicking the cervix could be useful for studying treatment of precancerous lesions. In this work, bioprinting of hexagon shaped alginate-gelatin scaffolds laden with HeLa spheroids was presented. The three-dimensional (3D) printing system was designed to extrude alginate-gelatin bioink of different  viscosities at an extrusion rate of 1–5 mL/min and printing speed from 10 to 50 mm/s. The biophysical properties of the bioink were characterized using dynamic mechanical analysis, viscometer, degradation test, contact angle measurement, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), live/dead cell stainings and Raman spectroscopy. The bioink formulated with 10% w/v of alginate and 50% w/v of gelatin (ALG10-Gel50) enabled high fidelity printing for the construction of a multilayered 3D structure. The viscosity of the bioink within 12 Pa s and viscoelasticity of the polymerized bioink ( G ′ = 0.074 MPa >  G ″ = 0.028 MPa) exhibited mechanical properties close to the in-vivo system. The scaffolds degraded 35% on the day 16 of culture. The polymerized bioinks exhibited hydrophilicity and contained amino groups as characterized by contact angles and FTIR measurements, respectively. In addition, the 3D microtissues laden in the scaffold were indicated with high cell viability at 95.25 ± 1.75% based on the live/dead cell stainings. The printed microtissues were characterized with the presence of deoxyribonucleic acid, lipids and amino acids associated with the collagen. This paper demonstrated the success in the bioprinting of multilayer hexagon shaped tissue model which is potentially useful for development of an in-vitro cervical cancer model.