Bone marrow stromal cells (BMSC) are considered for cell-based strategies for spinal cord repair. We transplanted autologous rat BMSC (female Sprague-Dawley, 160-180gr), lentivirally transduced to express green fluorescent protein (GFP), acutely (15 min post-injury) and delayed (3, 7, and 21 days post-injury) into the moderately contused adult rat thoracic spinal cord and investigated their survival, migration, and differentiation at 15 min, 3, 7, and 28 days post-injection. The percentages of GFP-positive BMSC in the contusion at 3, 7, and 28 days post-injection, relative to the numbers at 15 min post-injection, were 59%, 32%, and 0.02% after acute and an average of 51%, 22%, and 0.8% after delayed transplantation, respectively. BMSC death at 7 days postinjection was significantly lower after acute injections (68%) than after 7- and 21-day delayed injections (91%). At 28 days post-injection, the number of surviving BMSC in the contusion was similar in all paradigms. About 1.2% of the BMSC grafted in the 3-day old contusion had migrated into the rostral (80% of migrated cells) and caudal (20%) white matter 7 days later. Nestin expression in the contused spinal cord was temporarily and unaffected by BMSC transplantation. Nestin-positive BMSC were found within the transplant but only at 15 min post-injection. We provide evidence that BMSC grafted acutely or delayed into a moderate contusion in the rat spinal cord survive poorly, migrate into adjacent spinal tissue only under specific conditions, and do not differentiate into neural stem/ progenitor cells or astrocytes, which together may restrict their effectiveness for spinal cord repair.