AbstractC14‐palmitic acid bound to albumin was injected into normal and ethionine‐treated fasted female rats. Plasma, liver and carcass lipids were isolated and their specific activities determined. The initial halflives of the injected label were 0.61 and 0.92 minutes, the concentrations of plasma FFA 1.0 ± 0.3 and 1.6 ±; 0.4 μeq/ml, and the fluxes of plasma FFA calculated from this data, 9.0 and 9.3 μeq/min in the normal and ethionine‐treated rats respectively. The fraction of the plasma FFA flux taken up by the liver was about the same in the two groups, namely about 30 %. The initial incorporation of label into the liver NFFA was similar. The further metabolism of liver NFFA was slower in the ethionine‐treated group. Differences in liver PLFA metabolism were slight. In the normal rats a flux of approximately 10 % of the injected label through the plasma TGFA pool took place from 10–40 minutes after the injection. In the ethionine‐treated rats this flux was less than 1 %. The concentrations of plasma TGFA and PLFA were also lowered in the ethionine‐treated rats. The oxidation of the injected label was slower in the ethionine‐treated rats than in the normal ones. The accumulation of NFFA in the livers of the ethionine‐treated rats appears at least in part to be due to decreased transport of fatty acids from the liver in the form of plasma TGFA. Other factors may be depressed oxidation of fatty acids in the liver and/or increased liver