Review Cytochromes P450 and metabolism of xenobiotics

Cytochromes P450 (henceforth P450s) are in- volved in a variety of metabolic and biosynthetic proces- ses. The number of known P450 enzymes exceeds 1000, while the endogenous substrates of most of them remain unknown. All P450 enzymes exhibit similarity in their structure and general mechanism of action; however, there are significant differences in the detailed function of individual enzymes as well as in the structures and pro- perties of their active sites. This review discusses the pro-