Hyperbaric oxygen: effects on metabolism and ionic movement in cerebral cortex slices.

The incubation of slices of cerebral cortex under hyperbaric oxygen pressures from 1 to 10 atmospheres in the presence of radioactive glucose, pyruvate, succinate, fumarate, L-glutamate, and gamma-aminobutyric acid causes a marked diminution of tissue oxidative reactions. There is a simultaneous decrease in phosphocreatine and adenosine triphosphate, and a reduction of the apparent intracellular ionic gradients. The increase of lipid peroxides, measured directly, is attributed to the toxic effects of hyperbaric oxygen.