Effects of castration on the bone structure of male rats: a model of osteoporosis.

Forty young (23-day-old) and thirty old (1-year-old) male rats were castrated and sacrificed with controls at intervals up to 18 months of age. No differences were observed between femurs or mandibles of rats castrated at 23 days and those of controls. Year-old castrate rats developed femoral osteoporosis after 2 months, which became more pronounced 4 months after castration. This was characterized by reductions in femoral density, dry weight, dry weight per unit length, and ash weight, and by the appearance of resorption cavities in diaphyseal walls and a sparsity of trabeculae in metaphyses and epiphyses of castrate femurs. These results indicate that the year-old castrate male rat may be a valuable experimental model for studies of the treatment of osteoporosis.