Ricerc@Sapienza

About the issue if the natural encephalic proliferative activities can be infl uenced by the seasonal (thermal and photoperiodic) cyclic fl uctuations in adult earth-dwelling Anamnia and poikilothermal Amniota there is a gap regarding expressly summer season alone in literature reports on autoradiographic studies in frog. The actual study suggests that the brain proliferative pattern in Rana bergeri collected in the wild in summer is intermediate between those previously observed in spring and autumn. This would seem to indicate a proliferative increase from spring to autumn.

Inspired both by the literature reports and our previous fi ndings on the question if a seasonal cycle alone, consisting of temperature and photoperiod variations, might impact on or activate natural proliferative fl uctuations or unmask a latent spontaneous proliferative power in adult brain of poikilothermal Anamnia (fresh water, earth-dwelling) and Amniota (terrestrial), consequently allowing for encephalic reparative and even regenerative potentialities, an investigation has been carried on in normal adult brain of Triturus carnifex caught in nature in spring, summer, autumn.