Succinate: protective agent against hyperbaric oxygen toxicity.

When succinate is used to protect rats against the toxicity of oxygen at high pressure, 100 percent survive, with normal or above normal concentrations of adenosine triphosphate being present in the cerebral hemisphere, liver, and kidney. In contrast, 90 percent of the nonprotected animals died during exposure. In corresponding tissues of surviving nonprotected animals adenosine triphosphate concentrations are markedly reduced.