ABSTRACT:The hepatic disposition of estradiol 17-D-glucuronide (E 2 17G), a substrate of the organic anion-transporting polypeptides Oatp1a1, Oatp1a4, and Oatp1b2, was investigated in Wistar and E 2 3S17G (11؋) in liver and reduced net sulfation (40 ؎ 6 from 77 ؎ 6% dose, P < 0.05) were observed at 2 h for the TR ؊ versus the Wistar rats. With use of a physiologically based pharmacokinetic model, analytical solutions for the areas under the curve for the precursor and metabolite were obtained to reveal how enzymeand transporter-mediated processes affected the hepatic disposition of the precursor and metabolite in futile cycling. The analytical solutions were useful to explain transporter-enzyme interplay in futile cycling and predicted that a shutdown of Mrp2 function led to decreased net sulfation of E 2 17G by raising the intracellular concentration of the metabolite, E 2 3S17G, which readily refurnished E 2 17G via desulfation.The liver is the most important drug eliminatory organ and involves enzymes and basolateral influx/efflux and canalicular transporters for entry and elimination. The basolateral influx transporters [organic anion-transporting polypeptides (Oatps), sodium-dependent taurocholate-cotransporting polypeptide, organic anion transporter 2, and organic cation transporter 1] regulate the entry of substrate into the cell to undergo metabolism by phase I and/or phase II enzymes. Then both the parent drug and phase II metabolites are subject to canalicular transport via P-glycoprotein, multidrug resistance-associated protein (MRP) 2, the bile salt export pump, and breast cancer resistance protein, whereas basolateral efflux occurs via MRP3 and MRP4 into sinusoidal blood. Although metabolism is normally deemed to be irreversible, the metabolite, on occasion, may re-form the parent drug. This phenomenon, known as "reversible metabolism" or "futile cycling," describes the interconversion between the parent drug and its metabolite and can occur between a precursor and its phase I (Meffin et al., 1983;Baillie et al., 2001) or phase II (Hansel and Morris, 1996;Grubb et al., 1999) metabolites. For example, the sulfated metabolite formed via sulfotransferases (SULTs) in the cytosol may access the arylsulfatases in the endoplasmic reticulum to become desulfated to re-form the parent drug (Ratna et al., 1993;Kauffman et al., 1998). Acinar heterogeneity of the SULTs further complicates the scenario (Xu et al., 1993;Tan et al., 2001).A well-stirred liver model with membrane barriers has been shown to be useful to relate the physiological and biochemical factors to hepatic drug and metabolite processing (Sirianni and Pang, 1997;Liu and Pang, 2005;Sun and Pang, 2010). In brief, transporter or enzyme activity is denoted by the intrinsic clearance or the ratio of V max , the maximum rate of the enzyme or transporter-mediated process, and K m , the Michaelis-Menten constant, under linear conditions. CL in and Article, publication date, and citation information can be found at