Incubation of ¹⁴C-labeled polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) with rat, mouse or rabbit liver microsomes in the presence of an NADPH-generating system and molecular oxygen caused covalent binding of radioactive metabolites of PCBs to microsomal macromolecules. The binding was more pronounced with liver microsomes from animals pretreated with inducers of the microsomal mono-oxygenase system. The order of induction effect of the inducers used was KC-500 (a PCB preparation containing 55% chlorine) ≥ phenobarbital (PB) 3-methylcholanthrene (3-MC) in rats, PB > KC-500 > 3-MC in mice, and PB > KC-500 in rabbits. [¹⁴C]KC-300 (a PCB preparation containing 42% chlorine) was more effective than [¹⁴C]KC-500 as substrate for all the microsomal preparations. The binding reaction was dependent on both NADPH and oxygen, sensitive to carbon monoxide, glutathione, cysteine, hexobarbital, and aniline, and enhanced by EDTA, which inhibits lipid peroxidation. The addition of NADH, which was by itself a very poor electron donor, caused a synergistic increase of the NADPH-dependent binding of PCBs. It is concluded that the conversion of PCBs to active metabolites by the cytochrome P-450-linked mono-oxygenase system is prerequisite to the binding reaction. A survey of the effects of various inducers suggested that a cytochrome P-450 having a high aminopyrine N-demethylation activity is mainly responsible for the metabolic activation of PCBs in liver microsomes. Kidney and lung microsomes from untreated rats were virtually devoid of the PCB-binding capacity, but in kidney microsomes this capacity could be induced by pretreatment with 3-MC or KC-500, though not with PB.