Drugs containing strong basic nitrogen functional groups can be N-oxygenated to genotoxic products. While the reduction of such products is of considerable toxicological significance, most in vitro studies have focused on oxygen-sensitive reductase systems. However, an oxygen-insensitive microsomal hydroxylamine reductase consisting of NADH, cytochrome b 5 , its reductase, and a third unidentified protein component has been known for some time (Kadlubar, F. F., and Ziegler, D. M. (1974) Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 162, 83-92). This report describes the isolation and identification of all of the components required for the reconstitution of an oxygen-insensitive liver microsomal system capable of catalyzing the efficient reduction of primary N-hydroxylated structures such as amidines, guanidines, amidinohydrazones, and similar functional groups. In addition to cytochrome b 5 and its reductase, the reconstituted system requires phosphatidylcholine and a P450 isoenzyme that has been purified to homogeneity from pig liver. The participation of cytochrome b 5 and NADH cytochrome b 5 reductase in cytochrome P450-dependent biotransformations has previously only been described for oxidative processes. The data presented suggest that this system may be an important catalyst in the reduction of genotoxic N-hydroxylated nitrogen components in liver. Their facile reduction by cellular NADH may be the reason why N-hydroxylated products can be missed by studies in vivo. Furthermore, the enzyme system is involved in the reduction of amidoximes and similar functional groups, which can be used as prodrug functionalities for amidines and related groups.The metabolism of nitrogen-containing functional groups has become a topic of considerable interest since the early discovery that N-hydroxylated intermediates are often responsible for the toxic and/or carcinogenic properties of aromatic amines, hydrazines, and amides (1). On the other hand, the more facile N-oxygenation of secondary and tertiary alkylamines to hydroxylamines and N-oxides was considered as a route for detoxication (2, 3), and it was generally assumed that the strongly basic nitrogen compounds were metabolically stable. However, we have demonstrated that even the protonated hydrophilic amidines (4 -6), as well as diamidines such as pentamidine and diminazene and also guanidines and amidinohydrazones, are capable of undergoing metabolic N-oxygenation by liver microsomal cytochrome P450 monooxygenases (7,8). The N-oxygenation of these functional groups produces more reactive metabolites, and the genotoxic properties of benzamidoxime are well known (9). During investigations of the metabolic fate of strongly basic N-hydroxylated xenobiotics, we observed that they were readily reduced both in vivo and in vitro by a microsomal system present in all mammalian species (rats, rabbits, pigs, and humans) tested to date (10 -13).Preliminary experiments indicated that this system (10) had many of the characteristics of the microsomal O 2 -insensitive hydroxylamine reductase descri...