Decrease in cardiac contractility is a hallmark of chronic diabetes. Previously we showed that this defect results, at least in part, from a dysfunction of the type 2 ryanodine receptor calcium-release channel (RyR2). The mechanism(s) underlying RyR2 dysfunction is not fully understood. The present study was designed to determine whether non-cross-linking advanced glycation end products (AGEs) on RyR2 increase with chronic diabetes and if formation of these post-translational complexes could be attenuated with insulin treatment. Overnight digestion of RyR2 from 8-week control animals (8C) with trypsin afforded 298 peptides with monoisotopic mass (M؉H ؉ ) >500. Digestion of RyR2 from 8-week streptozotocin-induced diabetic animals (8D) afforded 21% fewer peptides, whereas RyR2 from 6-week diabetic/2-week insulin-treated animals generated 304 peptides. Using an in-house PERLscript algorithm, search of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass data files identified several M؉H ؉ peaks corresponding to theoretical RyR2 peptides with single N ⑀ -(carboxymethyl)-lysine, imidazolone A, imidazone B, pyrraline, or 1-alkyl-2-formyl-3,4-glycosyl pyrrole modification that were present in 8D but not 8C. Insulin treatment minimized production of some of these nonenzymatic glycation products. These data show for the first time that AGEs are formed on intracellular RyR2 during diabetes. Because AGE complexes are known to compromise protein activity, these data suggest a potential mechanism for diabetesinduced RyR2 dysfunction. Diabetes 52:1825-1836, 2003 A significant percentage of patients with diabetes (both type 1 and type 2) develop a unique cardiomyopathy that is independent of coronary atherosclerosis (1-3). This "diabetic cardiomyopathy" as it is termed starts off with asymptomatic left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (slowing of relaxation kinetics). As the disease progresses, systolic function becomes compromised, leading to an increase in incidence of morbidity and mortality (4 -6).The release of calcium ions from internal sarcoplasmic reticulum via the type 2 ryanodine receptor calciumrelease channel (RyR2) is an integral step in the cascade of events leading to cardiac muscle contraction (7). We and others have shown that expression of this protein decreases in hearts of chronic diabetic patients (8,9) as well as in the streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats (10 -13). Using the latter model, we found that in addition to a decrease in expression of RyR2, its functional integrity is also compromised in diabetes (14,15). This dysfunction is manifested as a decrease in RyR2 ability to bind the specific ligand [ 3 H]ryanodine and a slowing in its electrophoretic mobility using denaturing SDS-PAGE.Two distinct and separate types of post-translational modifications are likely to be induced by diabetes. First, it is well known that metabolic changes brought about by diabetes increase production of reactive oxygen species (e.g., -18]). These free radical and nonradical species react with several a...