[The effect of hyperbaric oxygenation on rat somatic and generative cells]

The effect of higher oxygen pressures (0.3 MPa, 5 sessions 1 h each daily) on induction of chromosomal aberrations in somatic cells and germinal tissues of rat males has been studied. Appearance of aberrations in bone marrow cells after HBO was recorded for 3 months, in cells of eye cornea epithelium--during 3 weeks after the end of sessions. Chromosome rearrangements in the first meiotic division were detected only 90 days after sessions. HBO affects neither functional nor morphological conditions of gonads and induces no dominant lethals. It is suggested that mutagenesis in bone marrow cells is an adaptive process, preventing mutagenic consequences of HBO in the cells of germinal tissue.