Recombinant adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors are promising tools for gene therapy. In spinal cord injury where extensive damage occurs, vectors with high diffusion and transduction abilities are required. We compared the diffusion capacity and transduction efficiency of AAV2 and AAV5 vectors using a mouse spinal cord injury model. Our study demonstrates that AAV5 is more effective than AAV2 for delivering genes into the injured spinal cord tissue. AAV5 diffused 6.9 mm from the injection site, transduced with an approximately two-fold increase in total cell number and yielded an approximately three-fold increase in gene expression in comparison with AAV2.