This study investigated whether electro-acupuncture (EA) would improvethe survival and migration of neural stem cells (NSCs) transplanted ininjured spinal cord as well as the potential mechanisms. TlO spinal cordsegments of 50 adult Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were completely transected,and then NSCs were immediately transplanted into the transected site of theexperimental animals, while control animals were sham operated withouttransplantation. Five days post-operation, electro-acupuncture treatment onGV9 (Zhiyang), GV6 (Jizhong), GV2 (Yaoshu) and GVI (Changqiang)acupoints was applied for 14 days (EA+NSCs 14d) and 30 days (EA+NSCs30d). ELISA and immunohistochemical staining were used to assess thecontent of neurotrophine-3 (NT-3) and the characteristics of transplantedNSCs. We found that the number of transplanted NSCs the survived inEA+NSCs14d group was significantly increased as compared to that of theNSCs30d group (5825.20+819.01vs 4781.40+500.49, P<0.05).19Immunostaining indicated that some transplanted NSCs developed intomicrotubule association protein 2 (MAP2) positive cells and many of themdeveloped into glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) positive cells in theNSCs30d group. Further, the migration length of transplanted NSCs towardcaudal tissue in the injured site was longer in the EA+NSCs30d group thanthat in NSCs30d group (5.98+0.79mm vs 3.96+1.72mm; P<0.05). AlsoNT-3 in injured spinal cord tissue was 23% increased in the EA+NSCs14dgroup. These results suggest that the combination of EA and NSCs improvesthe survival and migration of NSCs in injured spinal cord in rats.