for a gal obtained from alexis biochemicals san diego usa tissue samples 2 cm width were sutured to a aluminium gauze using 4 0 prolene sutures purchased from southern syringes ltd this was placed inside a 250 ml glass beaker filled with ice cold pbs kept on ice various ultrasonication regimens high intensity ultrasonication processor 600 watts model 601 progen scientific mexborough south yorkshire were applied to the tissue samples via positioning the tissue sample directly under the probe with the pbs being changed after every treatment on completion the tissue was removed and subjected to remaining decellularisation procedure the pulse regimen was 1 second on 1 second off for 10 mins before changing pbs and repeating indentation apparatus was used to analyse the deformation under load of fresh and decellularised porcine menisci the rig consisted of a shaft with a detachable 3 mm cylindrical rigid flat indenter at one end and the other end connected to a linear variable differential transformer lvdt for monitoring the displacement of the shaft weights were placed under the lvdt and the shaft movement was initiated by a manual release mechanism the lvdt was calibrated using step heights and the calibration factor acquired the lvdt had a resolution of 0 001 inches the speed of the shaft was controlled by an oil filled dashpot samples n 3 were firstly cut using a 6 mm diameter cutter to remove cylindrical shaped plugs a section measuring 3 mm was removed from the centre of the original plugs samples were fixed to the base of the sample holder using double sided sticky tape.