Due to high basal interindividual variation in cytochrome P450 3A (CYP3A) activity and susceptibility to drug interactions, there has been interest in the application of efficient probe drug phenotyping strategies, as well as endogenous biomarkers for assessment of in vivo CYP3A activity. The biomarkers 4b-hydroxycholesterol (4bHC) and 6b-hydroxycortisol (6bHCL) are sensitive to CYP3A induction and inhibition. However, their utility for the assessment of constitutive CYP3A activity remains uncertain. We investigated whether endogenous plasma biomarkers (4bHC and 6bHCL) are associated with basal CYP3A metabolic activity in healthy subjects assessed by a convenient single-time-point oral midazolam (MDZ) phenotyping strategy. Plasma 4bHC and 6bHCL metabolic ratios (MRs) were analysed in 51 healthy adult participants. CYP3A activity was determined after administration of an oral MDZ microdose (100 lg). Simple linear and multiple linear regression analyses were performed to assess relationships between MDZ oral clearance, biomarkers and subject covariates. Among study subjects, basal MDZ oral clearance, 4bHC and 6bHCL MRs ranged 6.5-, 10-and 13-fold, respectively. Participant age and alcohol consumption were negatively associated with MDZ oral clearance (p = 0.03 and p = 0.045, respectively), while weight and female sex were associated with lower plasma 4bHC MR (p = 0.0003 and p = 0.032, respectively). Neither 4bHC nor 6bHCL MRs were associated with MDZ oral clearance. Plasma 4bHC and 6bHCL MRs do not relate to MDZ single-time-point metabolic phenotype in the assessment of constitutive CYP3A activity among healthy individuals.It is well recognized that cytochromes P450 3A4 (CYP3A4) and CYP3A5 are important human drug-metabolizing enzymes with high interindividual variability in hepatic and intestinal activities. This is due to environmental, genetic, developmental, disease and seasonal control, including significant susceptibility to drug interactions [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Indeed, active CYP3A5 is genetically determined [7] while reduced CYP3A activity is associated with CYP3A4*22 [8], and peroxisome proliferator-activating receptor alpha (PPARa rs4253728) [9] while increased CYP3A activity is linked with CYP oxidoreductase POR*28 [10] polymorphism. Importantly, drug interactions such as those caused by enzyme inhibition with itraconazole and enzyme induction after rifampin treatment can result in a dramatic 400-fold range in CYP3A activity in human beings [11]. Furthermore, conditions including cirrhosis [12], chronic hepatitis C infection [13], critical illness [14], cancer [15,16] and kidney disease [17][18][19] are associated with reduced CYP3A activity. Given such wide differences in enzyme activity among individuals, there has long been interest in various methods to quantify in vivo CYP3A function.The most widely used and accepted method to assess CYP3A activity is to examine midazolam (MDZ) pharmacokinetics [20,21]. CYP3A phenotyping with MDZ has several advantages including rapid and specific elimina...