Spinal cord injury（SCI） usually leads to severe neurological dysfunction. Mesenchymal stem cell（MSC） are considered as one of the most promising stem cell types to treat SCI. However，the low migration efficiency，low survival rate and low differentiation rate after MSC transplantation seriously limit the clinical application of MSC transplantation. In addition，numerous studies have shown that targeted migration and integration occurs to very little cells either by intravenous or intraspinal injection. Recent studies have shown that the directional migration of MSC is influenced by cytokine induction，transcriptional gene expression，and tissue engineering. In this review，we summarize the role of MSC migration in terms of cytokines，gene expression regulation，tissue engineering，and the progress of recent research on strategies to treat SCI by promoting MSC migration. It will provide ideas to further improve the effectiveness of treatment of SCI and realize precision medicine.