Incubation of two types of glutamate dehydrogenase isoproteins from bovine brain with the arginine-specific dicarbonyl reagent phenylglyoxal resulted in a biphasic loss of enzyme activity. Reaction of the glutamate dehydrogenase isoproteins with phenylglyoxal caused a rapid loss of 53~62% of the enzyme activities and modification of two residues of arginine per enzyme subunit. Prolonged incubation of the glutamate dehydrogenase isoproteins with phenylglyoxal resulted in the modification of an additional four residues of arginine per enzyme subunit without further loss of the residual activities. Partial protection against inactivation was provided by the coenzyme NADH or substrate 2-oxoglutarate. The most marked decrease in the rate of inactivation was observed by the combined addition of NADH and 2-oxoglutarate, suggesting that the first two modified arginine residues are in the vicinity of the catalytic site. However, inactivation of the glutamate dehydrogenase isoproteins by phenylglyoxal appears to be partial with approximately 40% activity remained after an extended reaction time with excess reagent, suggesting that the modified arginine residues may not be directly involved in catalysis. The lack of complete protection by substrates also suggest the possibility that the modified arginine residues are not directly involved at the active site, and the partial loss of activity by the modification of arginine residues may be due to a conformational change. There were no significant differences between the two glutamate dehydrogenase isoproteins in sensitivities to inactivation by phenylglyoxal, indicating that the microenvironmental structures of the glutamate dehydrogenase isoproteins are very similar to each other.