Covalent intermolecular cross-linking provides collagen fibrils with stability. The cross-linking chemistry is tissue-specific and determined primarily by the state of lysine hydroxylation at specific sites. A recent study on cyclophilin B (CypB) null mice, a model of recessive osteogenesis imperfecta, demonstrated that lysine hydroxylation at the helical cross-linking site of bone type I collagen was diminished in these animals (Cabral, W. A., Perdivara, I., Weis, M., Terajima, M., Blissett, A. R., Chang, W., Perosky, J. E., Makareeva, E. N., Mertz, E. L., Leikin, S., Tomer, K. B., Kozloff, K. M., Eyre, D. R., Yamauchi, M., and Marini, J. C. (2014) PLoS Genet. 10, e1004465). However, the extent of decrease appears to be tissue-and molecular site-specific, the mechanism of which is unknown. Here we report that although CypB deficiency resulted in lower lysine hydroxylation in the helical cross-linking sites, it was increased in the telopeptide cross-linking sites in tendon type I collagen. This resulted in a decrease in the lysine aldehyde-derived cross-links but generation of hydroxylysine aldehyde-derived cross-links. The latter were absent from the wild type and heterozygous mice. Glycosylation of hydroxylysine residues was moderately increased in the CypB null tendon. We found that CypB interacted with all lysyl hydroxylase isoforms (isoforms 1-3) and a putative lysyl hydroxylase-2 chaperone, 65-kDa FK506-binding protein. Tendon collagen in CypB null mice showed severe size and organizational abnormalities. The data indicate that CypB modulates collagen cross-linking by differentially affecting lysine hydroxylation in a site-specific manner, possibly via its interaction with lysyl hydroxylases and associated molecules. This study underscores the critical importance of collagen post-translational modifications in connective tissue formation.Collagens comprise a large family of structurally related extracellular matrix proteins (1). Among all of the genetic types of collagen identified, fibrillar type I collagen is the most abundant, providing tissues and organs with form and stability. It is a heterotrimeric molecule composed of two ␣1 chains and one ␣2 chain forming a long uninterrupted triple helix with short non-helical domains (telopeptide) at both N and C termini. One of the functionally important characteristics of collagen is its unique, sequential post-translational modifications of Lys residues. The modifications include hydroxylation and monoand diglycosylation of hydroxylysine (Hyl), 3 and oxidative deamination of Lys and Hyl in the N-and C-telopeptides followed by extensive covalent intermolecular cross-linking (2). It is now clear that defective Lys modifications of collagen cause and/or are associated with a broad range of connective tissue disorders, including Ehlers-Danlos syndrome type VIA (3), bronchopulmonary dysplasia (4), Kuskokwim syndrome (5), Bruck syndrome (6, 7), fibrosis (8), disuse osteoporosis (9), and cancer progression (10, 11). Our recent finding showed that a switch of collage...