The 3-thia fatty acid tetradecylthioacetic acid (TTA) has recently been shown to inhibit growth rate and increase peroxisomal acyl-CoA oxidase (ACO) (EC 1.3.99.3) activity in the Morris 7800 C1 hepatoma cells. Dexamethasone potentiates and insulin antagonizes these effects of TTA. We demonstrate here the metabolism of the 3-thia acids in these cells and the influence of insulin and dexamethasone on this. (1) The Morris 7800 C1 hepatoma cells exhibited a low omega-hydroxylation activity of the 3-thia acid (and lauric acid). The combination of TTA and dexamethasone induced the omega-hydroxylation and ACO activities in these cells. TTA alone induced ACO activity, but not omega-hydroxylation activity. Insulin counteracted the induction of both enzyme activities. These results indicate that these two enzyme activities are under similar but independent regulation. (2) Hepatoma cells grown with 80 microM TTA in the medium accumulated phospholipids containing the 3-thia fatty acid. After 7 days, TTA accounted for approx. 40% of the total fatty acids in the phospholipids. In addition, TTA affected the incorporation of endogenous fatty acids into phospholipids by decreasing the amounts of palmitic (C16:0) and vaccenic (C18:1(n-7)) acid and increasing the amounts of linoleic (C18:2(n-6)) and alpha-linolenic (C18:3(n-3)) acid in the phospholipids. (3) Dexamethasone increased the incorporation of labelled TTA into both phospholipids and triacylglycerol. Most of the labelled triacylglycerol formed was secreted into the medium. Insulin increased the incorporation of labelled TTA into triacylglycerol, but not into phospholipids. The labelled triacylglycerol formed was retained in the cells.