Behavioural changes induced by a conditional disruption of bone formation.

Background: It has been shown that the brain regulates bone remodelling through sympathetic and parasympathetic nerve fibres. However, it is unclear if signals from the skeleton also influence brain functions and animal behaviours.

Methods: Bone formation was conditionally disrupted by daily injections of aciclovir (10 mg/kg) to transgenic mice expressing a herpes-simplex-virus thymidine kinase under the control of the osteoblast-specific promoter of the Bglap gene.