The widely used analgesic/antipyretic agent 4'-hydroxyacetanilide (acetaminophen, APAP) is oxidized by cytochromes P450 to a potent cytotoxin, N-acetyl-p-benzoquinone imine (NAPQI), and a nontoxic catechol, 3',4'-dihydroxyacetanilide (3-hydroxyacetaminophen, 3-OH-APAP). There are marked differences in the ratios of these two products formed from different isoforms of cytochrome P450. For example, the ratio of NAPQI to 3-OH-APAP formed by rat liver CYP1A1 was found to be approximately 3:1, whereas the ratio of the same two products formed by rat liver CYP2B1 was approximately 1:5. Investigations of the binding of APAP to CYP1A1 and CYP2B1 were carried out to assess the possibility that different preferred orientations of APAP in the active sites of these isoforms may, in part, by responsible for their different product selectivities. Although the spectral dissociation constants (Ks congruent to 0.85 mM) and UV-vis binding spectra (type I; absorption minimum congruent to 420 nm, absorption maximum congruent to 390 nm) were similar for interactions of APAP with the two P450 isoforms, NMR longitudinal relaxation times (T1) of APAP nuclei were significantly different. Two isotopically substituted analogs of APAP, [2,3',5'-13C3]-4'-hydroxyacetanilide and 4'-hydroxyacet-[15N]-anilide, were synthesized, and their binding to purified CYP1A1 and CYP2B1 was examined by NMR spectroscopy. Paramagnetic relaxation times (T1p) for each of the labeled nuclei were calculated from the T1 values obtained before (ferric) and after (ferrous-CO) treatment with Na2S2O4 and CO. The Solomon-Bloembergen equation was then used to calculate distances of the isotopically labeled nuclei from the heme iron of each P450 isoform. The results were that the amide nitrogen approaches relatively close to the heme iron in CYP1A1 (3.64 +/- 0.51 A) whereas it is significantly further away (> 4.5 A) in CYP2B1. In contrast, the aryl carbon atoms ortho to the phenolic group of APAP approach closer to the heme iron of CYP2B1 (3.19 +/- 0.12 A) than to the heme iron of CPY1A1 (3.66 +/- 0.30 A). The results are consistent with the hypothesis that CYP1A1 produces NAPQI preferentially because of closer proximity of the heme iron to the amide nitrogen, whereas CYP2B1 produces 3-OH-APAP preferentially because of closer proximity of the heme iron to the phenolic oxygen in this isoform.