Linoleic acid, arachidonic acid, prostaglandin E1, and prostaglandin E2 stimulated the proliferation of mammary epithelial cells in serum-free primary cultures only in the presence of epidermal growth factor. Linoleate-stimulated growth was manifest later in culture when proliferation, initiated by epidermal growth factor only, reached a plateau while linoleate-supplemented epidermal growth factor cultures continued to proliferate. The cultures in the plateau phase of growth could be restimulated to grow by adding either linoleic acid or prostaglandin E2 to the media. While the linoleate response could be abolished by the cyclooxygenase inhibitor, indomethacin, prostaglandin E2-stimulated growth remained unaffected. Linoleic acid was metabolized to arachidonic acid and prostaglandin E2, both in the growing and resting cultures. Proliferating cells metabolized linoleate and prostaglandin E2 extensively so that neither the fatty acid nor prostaglandin E2 accumulated in large quantities in the proliferating cultures. The concentrations of prostaglandin E2 in growing cultures supplemented with linoleic acid were much higher than in cultures without it. These results suggest that the metabolism of linoleic acid leading to prostaglandin production, not its contribution to membrane polyunsaturation, is necessary for sustained growth of mammary epithelial cells in the presence of epidermal growth factor.