We examined the feasibility of obtaining gas-liquid chromatographic (GLC) profiles of the distribution of electron-capturing (EC) components in mammalian tissues. The GLC profiles of the unsaponifiable lipids (UL) of rat tissues, monitored simultaneously by a flame ionization detector (FID) and an electron capture detector (ECD), were characteristic of both the source tissue and the individual rat. The GLC profiles of over 100 samples were only superficially similar to each other. Differences in the relative amounts of the EC components created individually characteristic GLC patterns, which were magnified by the removal of cholesterol from the lipid samples. This method provides a means of focusing on the EC lipids, which constitute only several parts per million in the tissue and have molecular weights of several hundred atomic mass units. Some of the EC components observed in the GLC patterns may be the products of pyrolysis of retinol and related compounds.This study was prompted by theoretical (1, 2 ) and experimental (3, 4) demonstrations of the importance of EC compounds in biology, the development of the ECD by Lovelock (S), and the application of the ECD to compounds of biological importance (6)(7)(8). The ECD is a very sensitive and selective GLC ionization detector. I t is very sensitive to highly halogenated compounds, such as the chlorinated pesticides, and thus has become a standard tool for the detection and estimation of pesticides in trace amounts