1. The effects of chemical agents on the metabolism of the antihistamine drug astemizole were investigated to evaluate drug-drug interactions. 2. Chemical inhibitors of astemizole O-demethylation were screened using the small intestinal and liver microsomes from rabbit as an animal model for the first-pass metabolism of humans. In the rabbit small intestine, astemizole O-demethylation was clearly inhibited by ebastine, arachidonic acid, alpha-naphthoflavone, ketoconazole, tranylcypromine, troglitazone and terfenadine. 3. In humans, these inhibitors also reduced microsomal astemizole O-demethylation in both the small intestine and liver. However, the inhibition rate of almost all these chemicals were clearly greater in the small intestine than in the liver. Thus, a different contribution of cytochrome p450 in each tissue is suggested. 4. All the chemicals inhibited astemizole O-demethylation in recombinant CYP2J2 microsomes. The results suggest that CYP2J2 is involved in astemizole O-demethylation in both the human small intestine and liver; however, the contribution in the liver is lower than in the small intestine. The effects of the CYP2J2 inhibitors during first-pass metabolism may be more important in the small intestine than in the liver. Since all the inhibition profiles of astemizole O-demethylation were different in the liver and small intestine, involvement of another p450 in astemizole O-demethylation in human liver may be speculated. 5. In the rabbit microsomal systems, the same metabolites found in humans were qualitatively detected and the inhibition profiles of the chemical agents in the microsomes resembled that of humans.