Recombinant bispecific antibodies such as tandem scFv molecules (taFv), diabodies (Db), or single chain diabodies (scDb) have shown to be able to retarget T lymphocytes to tumor cells, leading to their destruction. However, therapeutic efficacy is hampered by a short serum half-life of these small molecules having molecule masses of 50-60 kDa. Thus, improvement of the pharmacokinetic properties of small bispecific antibody formats is required to enhance efficacy in vivo. In this study, we generated several recombinant bispecific antibody-albumin fusion proteins and analyzed these molecules for biological activity and pharmacokinetic properties. Three recombinant antibody formats were produced by fusing two different scFv molecules, bispecific scDb or taFv molecules, respectively, to human serum albumin (HSA). These constructs (scFv(2)-HSA, scDb-HSA, taFv-HSA), directed against the tumor antigen carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and the T cell receptor complex molecule CD3, retained full binding capacity to both antigens compared with unfused scFv, scDb, and taFv molecules. Tumor antigen-specific retargeting and activation of T cells as monitored by interleukin-2 release was observed for scDb, scDb-HSA, taFv-HSA, and to a lesser extent for scFv(2)-HSA. T cell activation could be further enhanced by a target cell-specific costimulatory signal provided by a B7-DbCEA fusion protein. Furthermore, we could demonstrate that fusion to serum albumin strongly increases circulation time of recombinant bispecific antibodies. In addition, our comparative study indicates that single chain diabody-albumin fusion proteins seem to be the most promising format for further studying cytotoxic activities in vitro and in vivo.