$re = '/\(([^)(}{]|(?0))*\)|\{(?1)*\}/';
$str = 'a (.)(.) b
a ({ b
a {()} b
a {()}{} b
a (()) b
a {({({({()})})})} b
a {(}) b
';
preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($matches);
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