Singer-actor Rain and actress Kim Tae-hee, who gave birth to a baby girl Wednesday, will store her umbilical cord blood at Medipost, a biotech company that specializes in stem cell technology.

Cord blood is the blood left over in the placenta and in the umbilical cord after the birth of the baby. Cord blood contains red and white blood cells, plasma, platelets and hematopoietic stem cells that can be used to treat various intractable diseases such as leukemia and malignant blood diseases.

More than 100 patients have had their incurable diseases cured with cord blood annually since 2010, Medipost said.

Storing cord blood has become a new fad among celebrities. Among them are the couple of actor Jang Dong-gun and actress Ko So-young, football player Ki Sung-yueng and TV actress Han Hye-jin as well as comedians Kim Joon-hyun and Yoon Hyeong-bin, singer Jo Sung-mo, and soccer star Koo Ja-cheol, all of whom stored cord blood with the South Korean biotech company.

After gaining the parent’s consent, the cord blood is stored in a nitrogen tank of 196 degrees Celsius below zero after undergoing stringent pre-test and processing such as cell count and cell viability tests, microbial culture tests, immunity and virus tests, Medipost said.

Medipost announced two months ago that the sales of its umbilical cord blood division, its flagship unit, rose 18.5 percent year-on-year and its stem cell treatment business grew by 83.4 percent from last year, hitting record sales in the second quarter of this year.