Biochemical properties of cytochrome P-450 in relation to steroid oxygenation.

The P-450 cytochromes have been characterized biochemically in recent years as a family of monooxygenases that reductively activate molecular oxygen for insertion into steroids and other physiologically occurring lipids. Many of these enzymes are also known to bind and oxygenate a host of foreign compounds, including alcohol, drugs, pesticides, anesthetics, and mutagens. Some of the poorly understood variations in congenital adrenal hyperplasia may represent nutritional effects on the P-450 oxygenase systems or the ability of xenobiotics to interfere with normal steroid metabolism by these versatile cytochromes.