Disappearing text field after text-area submission

[Fabrizio Bartolomucci]

Hullo,
I load the content of a text field of a mysql DB in an html text-area by means of a php script from where it is possible to modify it and save it back to the DB.
Yet, when I do that, the field shows as empty when it is returned as he result of a query, while it shows normally when I browse the content. I noticed it reappears if I manually remove the carriage returns. Consequently I think the problem is connected to them: which are the characters generated by an html form that create those big problems and into what should I translate them to fit mySql?

Thanks, Fabrizio