In the past decade or so, the realization has come about that bones are more than simply a structure to hold our organs, muscles and skin. There are in fact correlations to the internal make-up of bones and energy metabolism as well as reproduction. It is well-known that there is a connection between menopause and osteoporosis in women. Thus, it came a surprise to Gerald Karsenty and his colleagues at Columbia University in New York City that their study with mice showed a relationship between bone cells and sperm production in male mice, yet no effect (at this time) on any female reproductive aspects.

To break the study down, osteocalcin is a hormone contained in osteoblasts. Osteoblasts are bone cells that partake in building new bone cells. In this study, the researchers took osteoblasts and combined them with cell cultures from either testes or ovaries of mice. The results showed a great increase in testosterone in the testis cells but no reaction or change in hormones in the ovary cells due to the introduction of the osteoblasts. Given these results, the researchers went on to inject osteoblasts into the blood stream of male mice, which resulted in increased production of testosterone in the blood stream. To further specify their testing, the researchers took a batch of male mice and removed their gene for osteocalcin. The mice without osteocalcin had smaller testes, lower sperm counts and smaller litter sizes when bred than normal male mice.

Though this study has only been performed on mice at this time, Karsenty has strong feelings that the hormone osteocalcin may play a factor in fertilty in men and believes that it could possibly be used in the future in treatments for male infertilty.

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