We describe a comparative study of human serum albumin (HSA) binding by equilibrium dialysis (pH 7.4, 37 degrees C, 3 h) for two groups of isotopic analogues: theophylline and 1-C(2H3)theophylline; unlabelled, 5(ethyl(2H5],-5(phenyl(2H5] and 1,3-15N;2-13C-phenobarbitone. Bound and free drug fractions are quantified by combined gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. In three instances, protein binding parameters are greatly affected by isotopic substitution, namely for: theophylline and 1-C(2H3)theophylline with isotope effects on total binding site concentration (N), affinity constant (Ka) and extent of HSA binding (%) respectively, equal to: NL/NH = 0.51; KaL/KaH = 1.78; %L/%H = 0.96 (L (light) and H (heavy) represent the unlabelled and labelled analogue respectively); phenobarbitone/-5-(phenyl(2H5]phenobarbitone, NL/NH = 1.72; KaL/KaH = 0.56; %L/%H = 1.26; phenobarbitone/1,3-15N;2-13C phenobarbitone, NL/NH = 2.95; KaL/KaH = 0.44; %L/%H = 1.32, together with a change from one (saturable) to two (saturable + non-saturable) families of albumin binding sites in the latter case. Contrasting with these data, no HSA binding isotope effect was observed on phenobarbitone C5 ethyl deuteration.