OBJECTIVE: To explore the effects of different methods of fetal spinal cord(FSC) tissue transplanted on reversing the axotomy-induced neurons atrophy of adult rats injured spinal cord. METHODS: One hundred and twenty adult rats received lumbar spinal cord hemisection. Experimental rats were divided into five groups, the control group(Group A); spinal cord hemisection only(Group B); spinal cord hemisection plus FSC transplant (Group C); spinal cord hemisection plus FSC transplant plus pedicled paraspinal muscle(Group D); spinal cord hemisection plus FSC transplant plus pedicled omentum (Group E). Combined behavioral scores(CBS), somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP), motor evoked potentials(MEP) were examined to evaluate the recovery of neurological function after operation. Rats were sacrificed after 1, 4 and 12 weeks. Nissl stained section was used for neurons quantitative image analysis. The positive cells were quantitative analysis by computer image analysis system. RESULTS: The different methods of FSC tissue transplantation could prevent the neurons atrophy secondary to axon injury of spinal cord in adult rats. The size of neurons were observed in five groups, they were group E gt; group D gt; group C gt; group B gt; group A (P lt; 0.05). Those increases in size of neurons were paralleled with a significant improvement in neurological function recovery. CONCLUSION: It indicates that the different methods of FSC tissue transplantation can maintain the neurons morphology and improve the neurological function of rats.