Human cytochrome P450: metabolism of testosterone by CYP3A4 and inhibition by ketoconazole.

This unit describes methods for measuring CYP3A4 activity using testosterone as a specific substrate, and for measuring CYP3A4 inhibition using ketoconazole as a selective inhibitor of testosterone oxidation. CYP3A4 is one of the most important and most abundant drug-metabolizing CYP isoforms in human liver microsomes (∼40% of total CYP), and it has the broadest substrate specificity. It is important to determine whether CYP3A4 is involved in its metabolism.