The most common procedure to identify hemoglobin adducts has been to cleave the adducts from the protein and characterize the adducting species, by, for example, derivatization and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. To extend these approaches we used electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) to characterize adducted hemoglobin. For this we incubated [14C]acrylamide with the purified human hemoglobin (type A0) under conditions that yielded high adduct levels. When the hemoglobin was separated by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), 65% of the radioactivity copurified with the beta-subunit. Three adducted species were prominent in the ESI mass spectrum of the intact beta-subunit, indicating acrylamide adduction (i.e., mass increase of 71 Da) and two additional unidentified moieties with mass increments of 102 and 135 Da. Endoproteinase Glu-C digestion of the adducted beta-subunit resulted in a peptide mixture that, upon reversed-phase HPLC separation, provided several radiolabeled peptides. Using ESI-MS we identified these as the V91-101 and V102-122 peptides that represent the cysteine-containing peptides of the beta-subunit. These results provide definitive information on acrylamide-modified human hemoglobin and demonstrate that ESI-MS provides valuable structural information on chemically adducted proteins.