Fabrication of mechanically tunable scaffolds by melt electrowriting: Process strategies and multi-scale structural design

• Explores mechanical roles of MEW scaffolds across scales for diverse tissue engineering applications. • Summarizes process strategies enabling precise control of scaffold mechanics and structural fidelity. • Outlines multi-scale design approaches to tailor scaffold architecture for hierarchical tissue environments. • Discusses current challenges and future directions toward predictive, mechanically adaptive MEW scaffolds. Melt electrowriting (MEW) provides submicron-level control over fiber diameter, orientation, and spatial arrangement, making it possible to fabricate scaffolds with tunable mechanical properties. This high level of precision is particularly valuable in tissue engineering, where scaffold architecture significantly influences both mechanical behavior and cellular response. Recent advancements in process strategies have markedly improved deposition accuracy and reproducibility. At the same time, progress in multi-scale structural design has facilitated the integration of macroscopic support with microscale guidance and nanoscale bioactivity. However, several challenges still persist in reconciling structural resolution, mechanical robustness, and biological performance. Issues such as electromechanical instability, anisotropic interlayer bonding, and the lack of predictive models linking processing parameters to scaffold properties continue to hinder design consistency and functional reliability. This review summarizes current developments in MEW-based fabrication and hierarchical scaffold design, addressing ongoing limitations that must be overcome to enhance structural integrity, mechanical adaptability, and clinical translation. It also provides a brief perspective on promising strategies to resolve these issues.