Despite of the usage of effective antibiotics, the occurrence of mortality and neurological sequelae following streptococcus pneumonia meningitis remains high. We investigated neurogenesis effect of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) on hippocampus dentate gyrus(DG) and subventricular zone(SVZ) in streptococcus pneumonia meningitis via double-labeling immunofluorescene with BrdU, DCX and NeuN. Our results showed that the area of DCX positive cells decreased in DG of infected rats treated with saline compared with normal control rats(p<0.05). However, the area of DCX positive cells from infected rats treated with BDNF got close to normal control level(p>0.05). After adjuvant therapy with exogenous BDNF, the population of BrdU positive cells increased in infection and normal control rats both in DG(p<0.01) and SVZ(p<0.05) especially in infection rats(p<0.05) compared to that of corresponding control rats, respectively. We found BrdU/DCX positive cells in infected rats treated with BDNF and migrated into deep layer of DG, and BrdU/DCX positive cells increased compared with normal control rats treated with BDNF, normal control and infected rats treated with saline(p<0.01). And BrdU/NeuN-labeled neurons in DG were also found in infected rats treated with BDNF(p<0.05), while none in infected rats treated with saline. These findings support the hypothesis that the proliferation of endogenous NSCs was activated by streptococcus pneumonia meningitis, but it impaired the differentiation of endogenous NSCs，that the administration of exogenous BDNF might improve neurogenesis of endogenous NSCs in experimental streptococcus pneumonia meningitis, a finding that may be a promising therapy in recovering neurological deficits and decreasing mortality during brain injury.