Abstract: To provide a method for serum-free culture of human cartilage cells and a serum-free culture medium. A method for serum-free culture of cartilage cells, said method comprising: an enzymatic treatment step for treating a human cartilage cell-containing tissue with a protease; an inhibitor-treatment step for, after the enzymatic treatment step, treating the tissue with an inhibitor for the aforesaid protease; and a culture step for, after the inhibitor-treatment step, culturing the tissue in a serum-free culture medium that contains kartogenin and/or SAG, ITS, FGF2 and hydrocortisone. A serum-free culture medium for culturing cartilage cells, said serum-free culture medium containing kartogenin and/or SAG, ITS, FGF2 and hydrocortisone.

Abstract: [Problem to Be Solved] The present invention is to provide a method of culturing a cell, which method safely increases GDNF mRNA expression without introducing a gene with a virus. [Means to Solve the Problem] A method of producing a cultured cell comprising glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) mRNA, including the step of culturing a human skin-derived stem cell in a serum-free medium containing at least one of SAG, purmorphamine and sonic hedgehog (SHUT) protein. The medium may further contain B-27 supplement, a ROCK inhibitor, EGF and FGF2.