Rat hepatocytes were treated with Staphylococcus aureus alpha-toxin to permeabilize their plasma membrane for low-molecular-mass compounds. During incubation with 1 mM labelled fatty acid, phosphatidate and, less clearly, lysophosphatidate rapidly reached a steady state, whereas labelled diacylglycerol accumulated to some extent, at least in the absence of exogenous CDP-choline. Esterification ...