Abstract:[Objective] To investigate the effects of lentivirus TAZ gene transfection on bone mineral density (BMD) and biomechanical characteristics of the femur neck in the ovariectomized rats. [Methods] A total of 90 6-month-old female SD rats were randomly divided in- to two groups, 25 underwent sham operation (SO) and 65 underwent bilateral ovariectomy (OVX). The BMD and femur mechanical proper- ties were tested in 6 animals in each group 3 weeks after OVX, while the remaining OVX animals were furtherly divided into 3 groups. After femoral neck was drilled, the TAZ group was injected with lentivirus TAZ, the Cherry group was injected with lentivirus Cherry, while the drilled group was not injected with any drug. In addition, the remaining animals in the SO group were used as normal controls. The BMD and biomechanics of the femoral neck were assessed again. [Results] The SO group had significantly higher BMD [(0.217±0.11) g/cm2 vs (0.158±0.03) g/cm2, P<0.001], maximum load of the femoral neck [(108.6±6.1) N vs (83.3±5.8) N, P<0.001] and stiffness [(338.8±11.1) N/ mm vs (226.4±12.9) N/mm , P<0.001] than the OVX group 3 weeks after OVX. At 1, 2 and 3 months after in vivo transfection, the BMD, maximum load and stiffness of femoral neck in the four groups were all ranked from high to low as SO group>TAZ>Cherry Group> drilled group, with statistically significant overall differences among them (P>0.05). Regarding to pairwise comparison, the TAZ group was signifi- cantly lower in terms of BMD, maximum load and stiffness of femoral neck than the SO group (P<0.05), while significantly higher in BMD and maximum loading than Cherry group (P<0.05) regardless of that the difference was not statistically significant in stiffness between them (P>0.05). However, there were no significant differences in BMD, maximum load and stiffness between Cherry group and drilled group (P< 0.05). As time went after in vivo transfection, the TAZ group got significant increase of BMD, maximum load and stiffness (P<0.05), where- as the Cherry group had significant decrease in BMD (P<0.05), and no significant changes in maximum load and stiffness of femur (P>0.05). The drilled group was of significant groove-like changes in BMD (P<0.05), while significantly decline in the maximum load and stiff- ness of femur neck (P<0.05). [Conclusion] The lentivirus-mediated TAZ gene transfection into OVX rats does significantly increase bone mineral density and enhance bone biomechanical strength.