After 14 days of infection, nociceptor-ablated females exhibited greater levels of Wnt7b and Wnt4, whereas cre-control females expressed more significant levels of Dkk1. There is growing evidence that both Wnt7b and Wnt4 promote the differentiation of stem cells within dental tissues, and Wnt4 has also been shown to inhibit osteoclast formation (Lv et al., 2018; Chen et al., 2019; Xu et al., 2022). This evidence concerns the gene WNT7B and infection.