Figure 1

(A) Diving profiles of the experiments: Compression was performed at a rate of 0.1 MPa.mim⁻¹ and decompression at rate of 0.01 MPa.min⁻¹ (slow decompression, SD) or 0.3 MPa.min⁻¹ (fast decompression, FD). (B) Time course of LDH release and (C) total release of LDH over the 3-h post-decompression period. Brain slices exposed to fast decompression + post-decompression medicinal air (◼; n = 28) showed a significant increase in LDH release as compared to sham slices maintained at normal atmospheric pressure (△; n = 26) and to brain slices exposed to slow decompression and medicinal air (◻; n = 28). Administration of post-decompression xenon at 50 vol% suppressed the increase in LDH release induced by fast decompression (; n = 14). No significant difference in LDH release was found between brain slices exposed to fast decompression and xenon and both sham slices maintained at normal pressure and brain slices exposed to slow decompression. Error bars are standard error to the mean. If not shown, error bars are included in symbols. Data were compared using the Tukey-Kramer variant of the Tukey’s honestly significant difference method for samples of different size. *P < 0.0001 vs sham slices and slices exposed to slow decompression and air; ^#P < 0.0001 vs brain slices exposed to fast decompression and air.