The bone marrow represents the most common source from which to isolate mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). They can be obtained directly from patients and successfully induced to form various differentiated cell types. In addition, cell-based transplantation therapies have been proven to be promising strategies for curing disease of the nerve system. Therefore, it was particularly important to establish an easy and feasible method for the isolation, purification, and differentiation of bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs). The aim of this study was to isolate and characterize putative bone marrow derived MSCs from Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. Furthermore, differentiation effects were compared between the GDNF-induction group and the BDNF-induction group. Of these, BMSCs were isolated from the SD rats in a traditional manner, and identified based on plastic adherence, morphology, and surface phenotype assays. After induction with GDNF and BDNF, viability of BMSCs was detected by MTT assay and neuronal differentiation of BMSCs was confirmed by using immunofluorescence and Western blotting. Besides, the number of BMSCs that obviously exhibited neuronal morphology was counted and the results were compared between the GDNF-induction group and BDNF-induction groups. Our results indicate that direct adherence was a simple and convenient method for isolation and cultivation of BMSCs. Furthermore, BMSCs can be induced in vitro to differentiate into neuronal cells by using GDNF, which could achieve a more persistent and stable inducing effect than when using BDNF.