$re = '/(?:\G(?!\A)[^\d<]*|<sup>[^\d<]*)\K\d+/';
$str = '<sup> 1</sup>
<sup> 1, 2</sup>
<sup>1, 2, 3</sup>
<sup>1, 2, 3\\-14</sup>
<sup>1, 2, 3- 44</sup>';
$subst = "{{{$0}}}";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php