Massachusetts General Hospital | MassGeneral Hospital for Children

BiographyDr. Aslam received his Medical Doctorate (M.D.) from Punjab Medical College of Punjab University, Pakistan. He was the Best Graduate of his medical school and was honored with seven professional Gold Medals and two Shields of Honor. He completed residency training in Pediatrics at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York. He was honored with Best Resident in Teaching Award and Exemplary Research Contribution Award at completion of the residency. He completed his neonatology fellowship at Harvard Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Program at Children's Hospital Boston, Massachusetts where he was honored to serve as Chief Fellow during the last year of fellowship training.

Dr. Aslam is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and an Attending Neonatologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. He provides care to critically ill newborns with a variety of presentations including respiratory failure, cardiovascular collapse, congenital anomalies, sepsis, and surgical emergencies. In addition, he provides delivery room coverage and antepartum neonatal consultation for families with high-risk pregnancies. He is engaged in many clinical modalities of neonatal intensive care including the resuscitation and stabilization of sick premature or high-risk neonates, assisted mechanical ventilation and subsequent management, ECMO, and care of the infants with common and more unusual conditions in the subspecialty of surgery. Dr. Aslam is also engaged in an active role in teaching medical students, residents, fellows, nursing staff, and respiratory therapists.

Research

Dr. Aslam's research focuses on identifying novel pathways leading to bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), also known as neonatal chronic lung disease (CLD), in premature infants. BPD is an important cause of respiratory illness in preterm newborns. The incidence of BPD ranges from 30-75% in premature infants. Factors implicated in the pathogenesis of BPD include prematurity and inflammation caused by mechanical injury, oxygen toxicity, and infection. Infants with severe BPD are at increased risk for mortality and may have abnormalities of pulmonary function, neurodevelopment, and growth. Death usually is caused by respiratory failure, unremitting pulmonary hypertension with cor pulmonale, or sepsis. Almost half of infants with severe BPD die due to inadequate treatment modalities available. Dr. Aslam's published work using genetically-modified mice in a hyperoxic lung injury model of BPD have demonstrated a protective effect of bone marrow stromal cells (BMSC) as well as their secretome in reducing hyperoxic injury on the developing mouse lung as well as preventing the vascular and cardiac changes of pulmonary hypertension associated with BPD. Whether BMSCs and their secretome can also reverse established BPD in addition to prevention is current active focus of investigation. A second translational research project is geared towards identification of human neonatal tracheal aspirate biomarkers predictive of BPD and utilization of this data to tailor currently available therapeutic modalities to prevent BPD.

Publications

View my most recent publications at PubMed

1. Aslam M, Baveja R, Liang OD, Fernandez-Gonzalez A, Lee C, Mitsialis SA, Kourembanas S. Bone marrow stromal cells attenuate lung injury in a murine model of neonatal chronic lung disease. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2009 Dec 1;180(11):1122-30. Epub 2009 Aug 27.
2. Liang OD, Mitsialis SA, Chang MS, Vergadi E, Lee C, Aslam M, Fernandez-Gonzalez A, Liu X, Baveja R, Kourembanas S. Mesenchymal stromal cells expressing heme oxygenase-1 reverse pulmonary hypertension. Stem Cells. 2011 Jan;29(1):99-107. doi: 10.1002/stem.548.
3. Tropea KA, Leder E*, Aslam M*, Lau AN, Raiser DM, Lee JH, Balasubramaniam V, Fredenburgh LE, Mitsialis SA, Kourembanas S, Kim CF. Bronchoalveolar stem cells increase after mesenchymal stromal cell treatment in a mouse model of bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol. 2012 May;302(9):L829-37. Epub 2012 Feb 10.
4. Hansmann G*, Fernandez-Gonzalez A*, Aslam M, Vitali SH, Martin T, Mitsialis SA, Kourembanas S. Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Mediated Reversal of Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia and Associated Pulmonary Hypertension. Pulm Circ 2012;2:170-81.
5. Lee CJ*, Mitsialis SA*, Aslam M, Vitali SH, Vergadi E, Konstantinou G, Sdrimas K, Fernandez-Gonazalez A, Kourembanas S. Exosomes mediate the cytoprotective action of mesenchymal stromal cells on hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension. Circulation. 2012 Nov 27;126(22):2601-11. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.112.114173. Epub 2012 Oct 31.