The degradation behavior of a membrane-electrode assembly (MEA) was investigated in accelerated degradation tests under constant voltage (0.8 V and 0.7 V) and load cycling (from open circuit voltage to 0.35 V) conditions. Changes in the structural and electrochemical characteristics of MEA after the durability tests give information as to the degradation mechanism of MEAs. The results of cyclic voltammogram and postmortem analysis by X-ray diffraction and high resolution-transmission electron microscopy indicate that the cathode catalyst layers of the MEAs showed no extreme degradation under constant voltage mode, whereas MEAs under repetition of load cycling mode showed very severe degradation after 280 h. However, the single cell performance of the MEA under repetition of load cycling mode was higher than under constant voltage mode. In addition, although the Pt band in the membrane of the MEA under repetition of load cycling mode was observed by field emission scanning electron microscopy, it did not affect the ohmic resistance. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.