The aim of our study is to understand the process of carbon tetrachloride hepatotoxicity in molecular terms and to take advantage of the knowledge to develop useful treatments against its deleterious actions. For that we plan to study the precise nature of the carbon tetrachloride activation to trichloromethyl free radicals as well as the lipid peroxidation process that they are able to spark. In addition, it is our intention to establish which is the relative weight of these two damaging processes in the occurrence of several biochemical and ultrastructural alterations observed during carbon tetrachloride poisoning. Our major interest is the study of the interaction between the trichloromethyl free radicals with cellular constituents. In our work, we plan to use the knowledge gained with the study of the process of carbon tetrachloride hepatotoxicity as a 'model system' for the understanding of the mode of action and treatment against the effects of other hepatotoxins.