Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are proteins or lipids that become glycated after exposure to diverse reducing sugars. Accumulation of AGEs induces diabetes complications. Microinflammation is a common major mechanism in the pathogenesis of diabetic vascular complications. Activation of monocytes/macrophages and T cells plays roles in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. The activation of T cells requires the enhanced expression of adhesion molecules on monocytes. AGEs activate monocytes by engaging the receptor for AGE (RAGE); however, little is known about the profile of agonist activity of diverse AGE moieties on monocytes. We investigated the effect of four distinct AGE subtypes (AGE-modified bovine serum albumin; AGE-2, AGE-3, AGE-4, and AGE-5) at concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 100 microg/ml on the expression of intercellular adhesion molecule-1, B7.1, B7.2, and CD40 on monocytes and its impact on the production of interferon-gamma and tumor necrosis factor-alpha in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Among the AGEs examined, AGE-2 and AGE-3 selectively induced adhesion molecule expression and cytokine production. Antagonism experiments using antibodies against adhesion molecules demonstrated that cell-to-cell interaction between monocytes and T/natural killer cells was involved in AGE-2- and AGE-3-induced cytokine production. AGE-2 and AGE-3 up-regulated the expression of RAGE on monocytes. The effects of AGE-2 and AGE-3 were inhibited by nuclear factor-kappaB and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase inhibitors. These results indicated that AGE-2 and AGE-3 activated monocytes via RAGE, leading to the up-regulation of adhesion molecule expression and cytokine production.