This study was designed to investigate the impact of cytochrome P450 (CYP) 1A2 polymorphisms on theophylline metabolism in a non-smoking healthy male Chinese population. Four polymorphisms CYP1A2*1C (G-3860A), G-3113A, CYP1A2*1F (C-163A) and CYP1A2*1B (C-5347T) were screened in 238 unrelated male volunteers. Then, a single oral 200-mg dose of theophylline was administered to 37 volunteers, who were selected from 238 volunteers based on the CYP1A2 genotype. CYP1A2 activities were evaluated by plasma 1,7-dimethylxanthine/caffeine ratios (17X/137X) after administration of 100-mg caffeine. The plasma concentrations of theophylline, 17X and 137X were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography. The activity of CYP1A2 was lower in volunteers with the -3113 AA genotype compared with those with the -3113 AG genotype (0.35 AE 0.04 versus 0.48 AE 0.07, p = 0.016) or the -3113 GG genotype (0.35 AE 0.04 versus 0.58 AE 0.22, p = 0.037). CYP1A2*1F polymorphisms were associated with increased CYP1A2 activity in volunteers with -3860G/-3113G/5347C homozygosity (0.66 AE 0.24 versus 0.46 AE 0.05, p = 0.034). However, theophylline metabolism showed no difference among volunteers carrying different haplotype pairs. CYP1A2 genetic polymorphisms influenced CYP1A2 enzyme activity as measured by caffeine, but CYP1A2 gene polymorphisms appeared to have limited influence on theophylline metabolism in our study.Theophylline has been used in the treatment of asthma patients for many years on the basis of its ability to suppress late asthma reactions in antigen challenge tests [1,2] and to alleviate airway hyper-responsiveness [3]. However, the agent has a narrow therapeutic range (5-20 lg/mL) and excessively high blood concentrations of theophylline, which has caused life-threatening toxicity in the clinic [4]. Therefore, to fully understand the factors that affect the metabolism of theophylline is extremely important for clinicians. Although several CYP450 isoenzymes, such as CYP1A2, CYP1A1 and CYP2E1, have been demonstrated to catalyse the metabolism of theophylline in human beings [5][6][7], theophylline is mainly metabolized by cytochrome P450 1A2 (CYP1A2) (approximately 80%) [8]. Both in vivo and in vitro studies have confirmed that CYP1A2 plays a major role in theophylline metabolism at pharmacological concentrations by both N-demethylation and 8-hydroxylation [7,9]. Thus, its metabolism may be influenced by CYP1A2 polymorphisms.