Aromatic amines are well known as occupational carcinogens and are found in cooked foods, tobacco smoke, synthetic fuels, and agricultural chemicals. For the primary arylamines, metabolic N-oxidation by hepatic cytochromes-P-450 is generally regarded as an initial activation step leading to carcinogenesis. The metabolic activation of 4-aminobiphenyl, 2-naphthylamine, and several heterocyclic amines has been shown recently to be catalyzed by rat cytochrome P-450ISF-G and by its human ortholog, cytochrome P-45OPA. We now report that human hepatic microsomal caffeine 3-demethylation, the initial major step in caffeine biotransformation in humans, is selectively catalyzed by cytochrome P-450PA. Caffeine 3-demethylation was highly correlated with 4-aminobiphenyl N-oxidation (r = 0.99; P < 0.0005) in hepatic microsomal preparations obtained from 22 human organ donors, and both activities were similarly decreased by the selective inhibitor, 7,8-benzoflavone. The rates of microsomal caffeine 3-demethylation, 4-aminobiphenyl Noxidation, and phenacetin O-deethylation were also significantly correlated with each other and with the levels of immunoreactive human cytochrome P 450PA. Moreover, a rabbit polyclonal antibody raised to human cytochrome P-450PA was shown to inhibit strongly all three of these activities and to inhibit the N-oxidation of the carcinogen 2-naphthylamine and the heterocyclic amines, 2-amino-6-methyldipyrido-[1,2-a:3',2'-d]imidazole and 2-amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5-fquinoline. Human liver cytochrome P-45OPA was also shown to catalyze caffeine 3-demethylation, 4-aminobiphenyl N-oxidation, and phenacetin 0-deethylation. Thus, estimation of caffeine 3-demethylation activity in humans may be useful in the characterization of arylamine N-oxidation phenotypes and in the assessment of whether or not the hepatic levels of cytochrome P-450PA, as affected by environmental or genetic factors, contribute to interindividual differences in susceptibility to arylamine-induced cancers.The carcinogenicity of arylamines has been well established in both humans and experimental animals (1). Humans are frequently exposed to arylamines such as 4-aminobiphenyl (ABP), 2-naphthylamine (2-NA), and o-toluidine in mainstream and sidestream cigarette smoke (2) and to mutagenic and carcinogenic heterocyclic arylamines in cooked foods (3). Arylamines are also found in coal-and shale-derived oils (4) and in agricultural chemicals (5), and they are used in a variety of industrial processes (1,6,7).Metabolic N-oxidation of primary arylamines, catalyzed by hepatic cytochromes P-450 (P-450s), is a critical initial activation step leading to carcinogenesis (reviewed in refs. 8 and 9). ¶ Studies with purified rat and rabbit P-450s have shown high specificity for the N-oxidation of 2-acetylaminofluorene, 2-NA, ABP, and several heterocyclic amines to their proximate carcinogenic and/or mutagenic forms by the P450IA2 gene products in various species (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15). In humans, the orthologous P-450 (16, 17), termed P-45...