study demonstrated that 96 h exposure to GEM, ahuman pharmaceutical, caused effects on a non-target species.It induced an increase in the transcriptional levels of key genesinvolved in lipid homeostasis, even without a concomitant activa-tion of ppar pathways. However, GEM does not appear to inducean endocrine disruptive effect, since cortisol increased in plasmawhich suggests that GEM may be recognized as a stressing agentby fish although without affecting the intermediary metabolism.Altogether present results suggest that S. aurata is sensitive to GEMexposure thus producing a response that involves lipid homeosta-sis, endocrine response and immune activation. According to theobtained data, il1ˇ, tnf˛ and casp3 genes and cortisol plasma levelsappear as potential early warning indicators of GEM exposure, butfurther butfurther studies should be performed in order to clarify effects bothat short- and long-term exposures.