$re = '/^(\d+)\r?\n(?!\*{1,}END\*{1,})/m';
$str = 'abc
1
2
3
4
5
***END***
abc
6
7
8
9
***END***
abc
10
11
12
***END***';
$subst = "$1,";
$result = preg_replace($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