Staff profile

The ability of the brain to change the pattern of sympathetic activity to the heart and selected vascular beds is crucial to an animal's survival and is the basis of cardiovascular homeostasis. Underlying this differential activation is a topographical organisation of neurones related to function within the brain nuclei responsible for cardiovascular regulation. My work combines neuroanatomical and immunocytochemical methods to map and characterise the neurones underpinning the differential activation of the autonomic nervous system.
Sympathetic preganglionic neurones (labelled with cholera B horeradish peroxidase) in the intermediolateral cell column of the rat spinal cord.

• Cardiovascular regulation and neuroanatomy
• Tracing studies and immunocytochemical analysis of brain regions involved in cardiovascular regulation

Journal Article

• Thompson, K. J., Watson, S., Zanato, C., Dall'Angelo, S., De Nooij, J. C., Pace‐Bonello, B., …Bewick, G. S. (2024). The atypical ‘hippocampal’ glutamate receptor coupled to phospholipase D that controls stretch‐sensitivity in primary mechanosensory nerve endings is homomeric purely metabotropic GluK2. Experimental Physiology, 109(1), 81-99. https://doi.org/10.1113/ep090761
• Shenton, F., Campbell, T., Jones, J., & Pyner, S. (2020). Distribution and morphology of sensory and autonomic fibres in the subendocardial plexus of the rat heart. Journal of Anatomy, 238(1), 36-52. https://doi.org/10.1111/joa.13284
• Shenton, F., & Pyner, S. (2018). Transient receptor potential vanilloid type 4 is expressed in vasopressinergic neurons within the magnocellular subdivision of the rat paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 526(18), 3035-3044. https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.24514
• Shenton, F., & Pyner, S. (2016). Vagal Afferents, Sympathetic Efferents and the Role of the PVN in Heart Failure. Autonomic Neuroscience: Basic and Clinical, 199, 38-47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autneu.2016.08.009
• Cork, S., Chazot, P., & Pyner, S. (2016). Altered GABAA α5 subunit expression in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus of hypertensive and pregnant rats. Neuroscience Letters, 620, 148-153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2016.03.031
• Kataky, R., Hadden, J., Coleman, K., Ntola, C., Chowdhury, M., Duckworth, A., …Shenton, F. (2015). Graphene oxide nanocapsules within silanized hydrogels suitable for electrochemical pseudocapacitors. Chemical Communications, 51(51), 10345-10348. https://doi.org/10.1039/c5cc00968e
• Shenton, F., & Pyner, S. (2014). Expression of Transient Receptor Potential channels TRPC1 and TRPV4 in venoatrial endocardium of the rat heart. Neuroscience, 267, 195-204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2014.02.047
• Pyner, S. (2014). The paraventricular nucleus and heart failure. Experimental Physiology, 99(2), 332-339. https://doi.org/10.1113/expphysiol.2013.072678
• Affleck, V., Coote, J., & Pyner, S. (2012). The projection and synaptic organisation of NTS afferent connections with presympathetic neurones, GABA and nNOS neurons in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus. Neuroscience, 219, 48-61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2012.05.070
• Dissanayakee, T., Budgett, D., Hu, P., Bennet, L., Pyner, S., Booth, L., …Malpas, S. (2010). A novel low temperature transcutaneous energy transfer system suitable for high power implantable medical devices: performance and validation in sheep. Artificial Organs, 34(5), E160-E167. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-1594.2009.00992.x
• Pyner, S. (2009). Neurochemistry of the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus: Implications for cardiovascular regulation. Journal of Chemical Neuroanatomy, 38(3), 197-208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchemneu.2009.03.005
• Watkins, N., Cork, S., & Pyner, S. (2009). An immunohistochemical investigation of the relationship between neuronal nitric oxide synthase, GABA and presympathetic paraventricular neurons in the hypothalamus. Neuroscience, 159(3), 1079-1088. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2009.01.012
• Brack, K., Watkins, N., Pyner, S., & Coote, J. (2007). A physiological role for NO in the centrally mediated sympathetic somatorejaculatory response in anaesthetised male wistar rats. Neuroscience, 150(2), 487-497
• Womack, M., Pyner, S., & Barrett-Jolley, R. (2006). Inhibition by alpha-tetrahydrodeoxycorticosterone (THDOC) of pre-sympathetic parvocellular neurones in the paraventricular nucleus of rat hypothalamus. British Journal of Pharmacology, 149(5), 600-607. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bjp.0706911
• Pyner, S. (2005). The hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus and cardiovascular homeostasis: a role in chronic heart failure. Current anaesthesia and critical care, 16, 58-68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cacc.2004.08.012
• Pyner, S., Coney, A., & Marshall, J. (2003). The role of free radicals in the muscle vasodilatation of systemic hypoxia in the rat. Experimental Physiology, 88(6), 733-740. https://doi.org/10.1113/eph8802524
• Brooke, R., Pyner, S., McLeish, P., Buchan, A., Deuchars, J., & Deuchars, S. (2002). Spinal cord interneurones labelled transneuronally from the adrenal gland by a GFP-herpes virus construct contain the potassium channel subunit Kv3.1b. Autonomic Neuroscience: Basic and Clinical, 98(1-2), 45-50. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1566-0702%2802%2900030-9
• Pyner, S., Deering, J., & Coote, J. (2002). Right atrial stretch induces renal nerve inhibition and c-fos expression in parvocellular neurones of the paraventricular nucleus in rats. Experimental Physiology, 87(1), 25-32. https://doi.org/10.1113/eph8702279
• Pyner, S., Cleary, J., McLeish, P., Buchan, A., & Coote, J. (2001). Tracing functionally identified neurones in a multisynaptic pathway in the hamster and rat using herpes simplex virus expressing green fluorescent protein. Experimental Physiology, 86(6), 695-702. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-445x.2001.tb00034.x
• Barret-Jolley, R., Pyner, S., & Coote, J. (2000). Measurement of voltage-gated potassium currents in identified spinally projecting sympathetic neurons of the paraventricular nucleus. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 102(1), 25-33. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0165-0270%2800%2900271-5
• Pyner, S., & Coote, J. (2000). Identification of branching paraventricular neurones of the hypothalamus that project to the rostroventrolateral medulla and spinal cord. Neuroscience, 100, 549-556. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0306-4522%2800%2900283-9