The glycoproteins tenascin-C (TNC) and tenascin-R (TNR) are extracellular matrix proteins involved in the development, plasticity and repair of the nervous system. Altered expression patterns after nerve lesions in adult animals have suggested that these molecules influence axonal regeneration. To test this hypothesis, we investigated adult mice constitutively deficient in the expression of TNC, TNR or both, using the facial nerve injury paradigm. Quantitative analysis of vibrissal movements prior to nerve transection and repair (facial-facial anastomosis) did not reveal genotype-specific differences, and thus impacts of the mutations on motor function in intact animals. Two months after nerve repair, recovery of vibrissal whisking was poor in wild-type mice, a typical finding after facial-facial anastomosis in rodents. Differential effects of the mutations on whisking were found: recovery of function was worse in TNC-deficient and better in TNR null mice compared with wild-type littermates. In double-knockout animals, vibrissal performance was insufficient, but to a lesser extent compared with TNC null mutant mice. Retrograde labelling of motoneurons in the same animals showed that similar numbers of motoneurons had reinnervated the whisker pads in all experimental groups precluding varying extents of motoneuron death and/or axon regeneration failures as causes for the different outcomes of nerve repair. Our results provide strong evidence that TNC promotes and TNR impedes recovery after nerve lesion. These findings are of particular interest with regard to the scanty knowledge about factors determining success of regeneration in the peripheral nervous system of mammals.