[Autoradiographic investigations on postnatal proliferative activity of the telencephalic and diencephalic matrix-zones in the axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum), with special references to the olfactory organ (author's transl)].

The localization and proliferative activity of the matrix-zones has been investigated in the telencephalon and in the diencephalon of 21 axolotls (Ambystoma mexicanum) by means of autoradiographs, after injection of tritiated thymidine at different stages of the postnatal life. There are no previous detailed autoradiographical reports on postnatal brain development in the axolotl. Matrix-zones (i.e. ventricular and subventricular zone) exist in the dorsal part and in the ventral part of the telencephalon, we have found these also in the diencephalon in the wall of the preoptic recessus and ventrally of the habenula. The quantitative part of this study indicates high values of the labeling-index in the early postnatal stages. Then, the labeling-index decreases, but also in 3 years old specimens labeled cells were observed in the matrix-zones of the telencephalon; therefore a few of proliferative capacity remains in the central nervous system of adult axolotls. Labeled cells were also found in the olfactory organ of early postnatal and adult axolotls; these are neuroblasts which have relevance for the regeneration of the forebrain.