Our study, for the first time, demonstrated the role of neuritin‐related survivability of SCs in experiment diabetic neuropathy: (a) reduced survival of SCs due to down‐expressed neuritin contributed to diabetic neuropathy; (b) exogenous neuritin treatment ameliorated survivability of diabetic SCs through enhancing the Bcl‐2 level and depressing the caspase‐3 activity; and (c) increased viable SCs associated with neuritin pre‐treatment improved neurite outgrowth of co‐cultured DRG neurons from diabetic rats, most likely through increased production of NGF. Here, BCL2 is linked to diabetic neuropathy.