After injury, neurons in the adult peripheral nervous system can switch from a dormant state with little axonal growth to robust axon regeneration. DNA demethylation in mature mammalian neurons removes barriers to axonal regeneration. This demethylation, in regenerating mouse peripheral neurons, depends upon TET3 to generate 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) in DNA. 5hmC was altered in a large set of regeneration-associated genes (RAGs), including well-known RAGs such as Atf3, Bdnf, and Smad1, that regulate the axon growth potential of neurons.