Hello mobstability:
I am not sure what cell nuclei are. I suspect that you are referring to micronuclei in tissues.
These are tiny bubbles - much small than a red blood cell. They form in liquids that are in moving. The kinetic energy of the fluid is used to create the tiny micro nuclei; these are stable in your body for a period of a few hours. This process is referred to as hydrodynamic cavitation.
The nuclei form in many sizes, when they have been measured in water. If the fluid [water] in your body is similar to water in the rest of the world, one would find that there are many small nuclei and very few larger ones. The progression goes in a smooth fashion.
What happens when you decompress is that the dissolved inert gas will diffuse into these nuclei. Since small bubbles will be compressed by the surface tension, the greater Supersaturation is needed to enlarge small nuclei than larger one. It so happens that small surface tensions can enlarge only the largest of nuclei and there are very few of these. Thus the minimum depth for DCS is established by the size-number distribution of these nuclei.
Clearly, if you had no nuclei at all, you would be able to surface directly from very deep dives. If you has as many nuclei as are present in air (e.g., to make fog), you could sustain virtually no oversaturation whatsoever.
One does not have nuclei large enough (of in sufficient quantity) to cause DCS when surfacing in a 30 foot deep swimming pool.
Dr Deco :doctor: