Cell-adhesion activity of the bovine propolypeptide of von Willebrand factor (pp-vWF) was assessed by means of an in vitro assay with several cell lines of both normal and tumor-cell origin. pp-vWF promoted adhesion and spreading of B16 mouse melanoma cells and G-361 human melanoma cells. However, it could not induce adhesion of any other cell lines tested including endothelial cells, normal fibroblasts, and tumor cells of sarcoma, carcinoma, neuroblastoma and leukemia origin. A monospecific polyclonal antibody against pp-vWF, but not against fibronectin, laminin, and von Willebrand factor (vWF), completely blocked the pp-vWF-mediated adhesion, indicating that the cell adhesion was due to the pp-vWF molecule and not due to possible contamination of these three well-known adhesive proteins. The cell-adhesion activity was also observed with human ppvWF and, furthermore, the adhesion to both bovine and human pp-vWF was not affected by a peptide containing the Arg-Gly-Asp sequence while the peptide abolished the cell adhesion to vWF. The adhesion was completely dependent on Mg2+ and inhibited by Ca"'. Inhibition by an anti-(pl integrin) mAb (4B4) indicates that the receptor for this protein belongs to the pl-integrin family. A monoclonal antibody (TC4) among several antibodies directed against bovine pp-vWF inhibited the B16 adhesion to immobilized pp-vWF. The epitope for this monoclonal antibody lies in a central 8-kDa portion of pp-vWF, suggesting that this region is important for the cell-adhesion activity. This idea was supported by the finding that purified 8-kDa fragment promoted adhesion of B16 cells in a concentration-dependent manner. As pp-vWF shows unique cell-type specificity in its adhesion activity, which is completely different from that of fibronectin, laminin, vWF and collagen, it may be a novel type of adhesive glycoprotein that utilizes a Dl-integrin receptor.The adhesion of cells to extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins is a key step involved in modulating the morphology, proliferation, differentiation, and migration of cells. This process is mediated by interactions between specific cell surface receptors and specific matrix proteins. Different cells adhere to different adhesive proteins due to the differential expression of surface receptors. It is well known that many cells adhere to fibronectin, laminin and collagen through more than one class of receptors including various integrins [ l , 21. Although these three proteins are abundant in ECM and thought to be primarily important in tissue organization under physiological conditions, there are a number of other proteins that have cell-adhesion activity in vitro and are thought to play a crucial role in more specialized stages of cellular events. [7]. A large amount of evidence is accumulating that these adhesive glycoproteins play dynamic roles in embryo-

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The world's first offshore gas hydrate production was successfully carried out in the deepwater Japan at Nankai Troughin Q1 2013. In this project, one production well and two sandface monitoring wells were drilled and installed with a combination of distributed temperature sensing (DTS) and array-type RTD (Resistance Temperature Detector) sensors. The objective of the sandface monitoring system was to capture the hydrate dissociation front dynamically changing during the production test and to monitor long-term reservoir stability with the selected temperature sensors. An ability to continuously monitor the response of these temperature data during production test would facilitate tracking of the dissociation front and yield valuable information for engineering design and verification of numerical reservoir simulators. The temperature sensors are cemented behind the casing and also strategically installed to cover the hydrate zone of interest and the entire wellbore. Due to operational constraints, the monitoring system was designed to be autonomous self-operated system by the subsea battery without cable connection from the sea surface for a period of 18 months from the day of installation of the monitoring system. The deployment of this monitoring system in this shallow unconsolidated hydrate reservoir was an unprecedented and challenging operation. In this paper, we will show the details of the key system components of the sandface monitoring system and the deployment process.