Il tegumento degli anfibi proposto come modello per lo studio del mantello dei molluschi lamellibranchi.

Amphibia are faced with various osmoregulatory problems and their skin is evolved as a highly efficient transport epithelium for water and ions, and so it is an organ intensely involved in the homeostatic processes. For years, the frog skin has been the guiding model for ion transport and many studies are made to put in evidence the presence and the localization of ionic channels, molecular transporter and also of enzymatic activities, possibly involved in the compensation of salt and water loss. Our investigations have the aim to verify if the mantle of Unio pictorum mancus, a freshwater shell-fish living in the same fresh water habitat of amphibia, presents analogous functions and mechanisms of ionic exchange