Researchers gave healthy rats daily hyperbaric oxygen (100% O2 at 2.4 ATA for 1 hour) for seven days and then measured electrical signals in the hippocampus, a brain area important for learning and memory. Treated rats showed much stronger long-term potentiation (LTP)—a lasting increase in the strength of synaptic connections—than controls, meaning their brain circuits were more able to strengthen after stimulation. Molecular tests showed higher levels of BDNF (a protein that supports neurons) and activated CREB1 (a molecule that helps turn on memory-related genes), suggesting the oxygen treatment boosted plasticity by turning on this growth-and-memory pathway. The study suggests hyperbaric oxygen can enhance memory-related brain function even in healthy brains <view study>

This review explains how hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT)—breathing high-pressure oxygen—and exosomes—tiny cell-made vesicles carrying proteins and RNA—can work together to speed and improve tissue healing. HBOT raises oxygen levels to reduce hypoxia, promote blood vessel growth, and lower inflammation, while exosomes regulate immune responses, stimulate cell growth, deliver pro-repair signals (like microRNAs), and reduce scarring. HBOT can increase exosome release and change their content (e.g., raising MALAT1) through a “hyperoxia–hypoxia paradox,” and exosomes can protect tissues from HBOT-related oxygen injury. Animal and lab studies show combining the two gives stronger anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, angiogenic, and neuroprotective effects than either alone, helping wounds, nerve injuries, spinal cord and sciatic nerve damage, and ischemic tissue <view study>

A 45-year-old man with right-sided weakness, poor balance, and cognitive problems 15 months after a left-sided hemorrhagic stroke received 83 hyperbaric oxygen therapy sessions (2.0 ATA, 90 minutes) over 16 weeks. After treatment he improved from wheelchair dependence to walking with a quadruped cane, showed stronger muscles, less spasticity, better balance, and gains in attention, verbal memory, and processing speed. Brain imaging matched these gains: diffusion tensor imaging showed increased white-matter integrity in key tracts, and SPECT showed ~16% increased blood flow in the right motor cortex and right frontal lobe. The case suggests HBOT can boost neuroplasticity and blood flow in nondead brain tissue even long after a stroke, and advanced imaging can track these changes <view study>