Of note, we observed that different genes in the WNT family present the opposite expression trend. WNT7A shows a significant increase in the early stage from D0 to D7, coupled with noncanonical Wnt signaling pathway genes, PRKCA and NLK; however, WNT5a shows a decreased expression pattern coupled with canonical Wnt signaling pathway genes FZD and β-Catenin in the early differentiation stage, which then increased. It was reported31 that the canonical Wnt signaling pathway is involved in regulating neuronal function maturation, while the noncanonical Wnt signalling pathway is related with cell fate and migration. In the present study, cell fate-related noncanonical Wnt signaling pathway emerged earlier than the neuronal function maturation-related canonical Wnt signaling pathway, which is in accordance with the development from fate to function.
