Young rats were maintained in a 10% oxygen atmosphere for 2, 6, and 10 days and administered normal rat chow and water ad libitum. Thereafter, their hepatic S-adenosyl-L-methionine (AdoMet) and activity and mRNA levels of AdoMet synthetase were assayed. AdoMet levels decreased by 45% after 10 days; hepatic AdoMet synthetase also declined by approximately 40%. In rats with low hepatic AdoMet, the mRNA level of AdoMet synthetase also declined by up to 80%. No significant change in AdoMet or AdoMet synthetase was noted in pair-fed normoxic rats. DNA hypomethylation was determined in terms of incorporation of [3H]methyl of AdoMet incorporated at unmethylated sites in DNA in reactions mediated by methylases HpaII and SssI. As compared to the normal hepatic DNA, [3H]methyl group incorporation in the 10-day hypoxic DNA was almost double in the HpaII-mediated reaction and approximately 10-fold in the SssI-mediated reaction. Hepatic tRNA methyltransferase activity doubled after 10 days of hypoxia. However, hypoxic rats showed no detectable mRNA transcripts for c-myc and c-fos oncogenes on Northern blot analysis. These observations show that because of subnormal activity of AdoMet synthetase, hypoxic liver is depleted of AdoMet, even when the animals are administered a complete diet. However, unlike rats on chronic lipotrope-deficient diets, hypoxic rats on a complete diet show no aberrant expression of oncogenes.