This study estimated the kinetic constants for oxidative metabolism of atrazine (ATRA) and its chlorotriazine (Cl-TRI) metabolites, 2-chloro-4-ethylamino-6-amino-1,3,5-triazine (ETHYL), 2-chloro-4-amino-6-isopropylamino-1,3,5-triazine (ISO), and diaminochlorotriazine (DACT), using freshly isolated rat hepatocytes. Hepatocytes were incubated with 1.74, 44, 98, and 266 microM ATRA. Disappearance of ATRA and formation of the Cl-TRI metabolites were quantified over 90 min. At all incubation concentrations, ATRA was preferentially metabolized to ETHYL, producing ETHYL concentrations approximately 6 times higher than those of ISO. DACT concentrations peaked at 44 microM ATRA and decreased with increasing incubation concentrations, indicating non-linear metabolic behavior of ATRA with respect to DACT formation. A series of kinetic models were developed from these data to describe the dose and time-dependent oxidative metabolism of ATRA and the Cl-TRI metabolites. An integrated model for all the chloro-triazines included multi-substrate competitive inhibition of metabolism to describe the non-linear behavior of DACT production in relation to ATRA while simultaneously simulating the time-course behavior of the Cl-TRIs at all four ATRA concentrations. The maximal metabolic rate (V(max)) of ATRA metabolism and the Michaelis-Menten constant (K(M)) for the reaction were 1.6 microM/min and 30 microM, respectively. V(max) and K(M) values for ETHYL and ISO metabolism to DACT were also estimated using this modeling approach.