The last step of aldosterone biosynthesis, an 1 1p-hydroxylation followed by two 18-hydroxyIations, are catalyzed, in the bovine system, by the same enzyme, the cytochrome P-45Oll, (deoxycorticosterone (DOC) -corticosterone -18-hydroxycorticosterone -aldosterone). The 1 lp-and 18-hydroxylase activities were studied separately with a reconstituted enzymic system, using 1 l-de~xy Steroid Biochem. 33, 119-1241, were characterized for both activities (llp-and 18-hydroxylase). The value of reversible K, for the 18-hydroxylation (Ki = 5 pM for 18-vinylprogesterone and 30 pM for 18-ethynylprogesterone) is lower than that for the 1lp-hydroxylation (30 pM and 100-150 pM, respectively); the former inhibitor is stronger than the latter for both steps.The binding of substrates and inhibitors to the active site was also examined by difference absorption spectroscopy. 18-Vinylprogesterone gave rise to a type I spectrum with a K, value of 35 pM close to that of progesterone, while 18-ethynylprogesterone showed a reverse type I spectrum with a much higher K, value (140 pM). Based on these results, a hypothetical model, involving a conformational change of the enzyme for the second step, is proposed.Keywords: cytochrome ; P-45OI1,; mechanism-based inhibitors ; aldosterone biosynthesis ; 18-vinylprogesterone.Aldosterone overproduction leads to oedematous diseases and hypertension (Corvol et al., 1990). These disorders are clinically treated with spirolactones which act as antagonists at the receptor level. We developed a new approach namely by focusing on the inhibition of cytochrome P-4501,, (P-450,,,), the last enzyme in aldosterone biosynthesis. For this purpose, progesterone derivatives designed as mechanism-based inhibitors of P-4501,, were synthesized in our laboratory (Viger et al., 1988).The most potent inhibitors, tested with rat adrenal cell-free extracts, were 18-vinylprogesterone (1 8-VP) and 18-ethynylprogesterone (18-EP) (Fig. 1) which completely inhibit aldosterone production at 0.8 pM and 8 pM, respectively (Viger et al., 1989). In this study the inhibitions by 18-VP and 18-EP were studied more accurately using a bovine reconstituted enzymic P-450,,,, P-450,,, and P-450,,,,, cytochromes P-450 1 lP-18-hydroxylase, P-450 cholesterol side-chain cleavage, P-450 17a-hydro~ylase/C,,,~, lyase and P-450 aromatase.Enzyme. Steroid 1 ID-monoxygenase; cytochrome P-450, ,8 (EC 1.14.15.4). system including P-45011,, adrenodoxin and adrenodoxin reductase.P-450,,, purified from bovine adrenal cortex can catalyze the 1 lp-hydroxylation of 11 -deoxycorticosterone, the 18-hydroxylation of corticosterone as well as aldosterone formation (Fig. 2) (Wada et al., 1985;Yanagibashi et al., 1986). However two distinct forms of P-45Ol,,, encoded by two different genes exist in the bovine adrenal cortex (for a review, see Muller, 1993). Indeed two bovine P-45011, cDNAs, pc P-450 118-3 and pc P-450 llp-2 were cloned (Moroashi et al., 1987;Kirita et al., 1988). Expression into COS-7 cells revealed that both enzymes were capable of catalyzin...