The class I (alpha, beta 1, gamma 1, and gamma 2), II (pi), and III (chi) isozymes of human liver alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) were isolated as electrophoretically homogeneous preparations to examine their kinetics of aldehyde and ketone reduction. While the oxidation of a wide variety of alcohols by ADH has been investigated extensively, the reduction of aldehydes and ketones has received much less attention even though the equilibrium favors the latter process. For each isozyme, the Km and kcat values were measured at pH 7.0 with acetaldehyde, pentanal, octanal, benzaldehyde, and cyclohexanone as substrates. Activity could not be detected with succinic semialdehyde and betaine aldehyde for any of the isozymes. The nonenzymatic hydration, oxidation, and aldol condensation of aldehydes in aqueous solutions present serious experimental obstacles in determining the isozymes' kinetic constants. The effects of these reactions on the enzymatic parameters were studied and compensated for. Michaelis constants for all class I and II isozymes vary by more than 8000-fold, from less than 1 microM for beta 1 gamma 1 and beta 1 beta 1 with octanal to 8.3 mM for pi-ADH for acetaldehyde. However, with any given aldehyde, these values vary by less than 40-fold, and the constants are approximately equal to Km values reported previously for the corresponding alcohols. In contrast, Km values for chi-ADH are extremely high and could be determined accurately only for octanal (75 microM).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)