We generated parallel elastic fibers from synthetic elastin (SE) as a model of the arterial media and assessed the alignment of smooth muscle cells (SMCs). SE utilized crosslinked electrospun human tropoelastin to form aligned fibers that mimicked the topography and elastin-rich content of the medial extracellular matrix. Bundled parallel fibers were anisotropically more elastic than randomly arranged scaffolds (111 +/- 25 kPa vs. 265 +/- 17 kPa) in the direction of the fibers. Aligned and random fiber scaffolds each supported SMC growth. Following attachment, SMCs proliferated longitudinally on the parallel fibers and expressed native alpha-smooth muscle actin. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 100A: 155-161, 2012.