The colony-forming efficiency of rat tracheal epithelial (RTE) cells was determined in serum-free media containing different types of commercially available bovine serum albumin (BSA): crude fraction V, essentially globulin-free, essentially fatty-acid-free, and essentially globulin- and fatty-acid-free BSA. RTE cells exhibited a concentration-dependent increase in colony-forming efficiency in response to crude fraction V BSA. Similar results were obtained using essentially globulin-free BSA. However, deletion of cholera toxin from the medium resulted in a decrease in the colony-forming efficiency for cells plated in high concentrations (greater than 2 mg/ml) of globulin-free, but not one type of fraction V, BSA. Essentially fatty-acid-free or essentially fatty-acid- and globulin-free BSA stimulated RTE cell colony formation at low concentrations (less than 2.5 to 5 mg BSA/ml) but resulted in concentration-dependent decreases in colony-forming efficiency at higher concentrations. The response of cells to these BSAs was not dependent on cholera toxin. Finally, commercially available fraction V BSA prepared by heat shock, dialysis, charcoal treatment, and deionization was stimulatory at low concentrations but inhibitory at high concentrations. These data suggest that impure preparations of BSA can, under different conditions, stimulate or inhibit cell proliferation and that the expression of these activities is affected by the method of BSA preparation, the concentration of BSA used, and, in some cases, by the presence or absence of cholera toxin.