Distal to a peripheral nerve transection, myelin degradation and Schwann cell (SC) proliferation are accompanied by a marked upregulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and a decrease of ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) in non-neuronal cells. To investigate the role of SC differentiation in trophic factor regulation, we studied BDNF and CNTF expression in sciatic nerves from Trembler-J (Tr-J) mice. In these animals, a mutation in the pmp-22 gene causes a failure of myelination and continuous SC proliferation, but axonal continuity is preserved. In spite of the severe abnormalities in Tr-J nerves, BDNF levels remained as low as in the intact controls. Thus, the primary SC disorder in Tr-J produces a different pattern of BDNF expression from that caused by axonal breakdown due to nerve transection. Furthermore, the upregulation of BDNF mRNA triggered by transection was 70-fold in control nerves, but only 30-fold in Tr-J sciatic nerves. Because these results raised the possibility that axonal loss may influence neurotrophin expression only in SCs that have differentiated toward a myelinating phenotype, we measured BDNF mRNA after axotomy in the cervical sympathetic trunk (CST), a predominantly unmyelinated autonomic nerve. In contrast to the sciatic nerves, the BDNF mRNA level barely increased in the injured CST, supporting the idea that not all SCs are equal sources of trophic molecules. In Tr-J sciatic nerves, CNTF mRNA levels were fourfold lower than normal, implying that the downregulation of this cytokine is a sensitive indicator of a spectrum of SC perturbations that affect myelinating cells.