Plasma samples were obtained from 34 bone marrow transplant (BMT) recipients before and after administration of the preparative regimen and tested for their ability to promote and/or support growth of hemopoietic colonies. The ability of plasma samples to promote colony formation on their own was tested on normal nonadherent target cells without addition of exogenous growth factors. The growth-supporting activity was examined in the presence of medium conditioned by phytohemagglutinin-stimulated leukocytes (PHA-LCM) and/or erythropoietin (EPO). A series of kinetic changes was routinely observed. Pretransplant samples rarely gave rise to colonies without addition of exogenous growth factors. Plasma samples obtained after completion of the preparative regimen demonstrated increments of growth-promoting activities for megakaryocyte and granulocyte-macrophage progenitors (CFU-Meg and CFU-GM), respectively, that peaked between 7 and 21 d after transplantation. By day 30, activity levels of some patients had returned to pretransplant values, whereas in other patients, activities remained elevated. Persisting activity levels were associated with delayed engraftment. In contrast, activities for progenitors committed to erythropoiesis (BFU-E) and pluripotent precursors (CFU-GEMM) were only rarely observed. The activities were independent of febrile episodes. Their growth-promoting influence on CFU-GM could be neutralized completely by anti-granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) antibodies. These data suggest that at least some of the observed activities in post-BMT plasma are related to GM-CSF. The growth-supporting activities of pretransplant plasma samples are lower than normal plasma when tested on CFU-Meg and CFU-GM. The growth-supporting activities improved transiently within the first month after BMT. A decline during the second and third month was followed by a gradual return to activity levels that were comparable to normal plasma. The effects of these plasma samples on BFU-E and CFU-GEMM were assessed with PHA-LCM and EPO. Similar to CFU-Meg- and CFU-GM-supporting capabilities, they improved transiently after BMT with a return of normal support function after 5-6 mo. The observed endogenous production of growth-promoting and growth-supporting activities for hemopoietic progenitors may serve as a background to design clinical trials for the timely administration of recombinant hemopoietic growth factors to BMT recipients.