NADPH-supported lipid peroxidation monitored by malondialdehyde (MDA) production in the presence of ferric pyrophosphate in liver microsomes was inactivated by heat treatment or by trypsin and the activity was not restored by the addition of purified NADPH-cytochrome P450 reductase (FPT). The activity was differentially solubilized by sodium cholate from microsomes, and the fraction solubilized between 0.4 and 1.2% sodium cholate was applied to a Sephadex G-150 column and subfractionated into three pools, A, B, and C. MDA production was reconstituted by the addition of microsomal lipids and FPT to specific fractions from the column, in the presence of ferric pyrophosphate and NADPH. Pool B, after removal of endogenous FPT, was highly active in catalyzing MDA production and the disappearance of arachidonate and docosahexaenoate, and this activity was abolished by heat treatment and trypsin digestion, but not by carbon monoxide. The rate of NADPH-supported lipid peroxidation in the reconstituted system containing fractions pooled from Sephadex G-150 columns was not related to the content of cytochrome P450. p-Bromophenylacylbromide, a phospholipase A2 inhibitor, inhibited NADPH-supported lipid peroxidation in both liver microsomes and the reconstituted system, but did not block the peroxidation of microsomal lipid promoted by iron-ascorbate or ABAP systems. Another phospholipase A2 inhibitor, mepacrine, poorly inhibited both microsomal and pool-B'-promoted lipid peroxidation, but did block both iron-ascorbate-driven and ABAP-promoted lipid peroxidation. The phospholipase A2 inhibitor chlorpromazine, which can serve as a free radical quencher, blocked lipid peroxidation in all systems. The data presented are consistent with the existence of a heat-labile protein-containing factor in liver microsomes which promotes lipid peroxidation and is not FPT, cytochrome P450, or phospholipase A2.