Biological chemical reactions are regulated by biological catalysts known as enzymes. There are also nonenzymatic chemical reactions in biological systems that are spontaneous and unregulated. One of these well studied nonenzymatic reactions, associated with the complications in diabetes, is that between elevated blood and tissue glucose concentrations and the amino group of proteins in a reaction known as glycation.These simple glycated proteins, which can form with any sugar, continue to react to form complex structures called advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs). AGEs have also been implicated with the pathology of a number of diseases besides diabetes including aging, arthritis, and Alzheimer’s.disease. Our lab has been involved in studies of AGEs formation with some of the sugars found in humans that are formed from glucose and absorbed from the diet. These include fructose, galactose, ribose, glyceraldhyde and glucosamine.. Glucosamine is a naturally occurring analog of glucose where an amine replaces the hydroxyl group on carbon-2 is of paticular interest to us. It is sold over the counter and is widely used as a dietary supplement to relieve the symptoms of osteoarthritis. Its effectiveness has been reported in many clinical studies, but none has identified the effect as being due to glucosamine alone or any of the many AGEs it can form. Our laboratory is developing capillary electrophoresis (CE) and high performance liquid chromatography methods to describe the in vitro formation of previously undescribed AGEs.